


Bittersweet Future

by Balshumet



Series: The If Series [1]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Violence, Epic Battles, Fantastic Racism, Gen, I mean sorta, Implied/Referenced Torture, Past Torture, People die ok, This is a fighting show after all, Time Travel, Torture, lots of it actually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-20
Updated: 2016-04-29
Packaged: 2018-05-27 22:43:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 15
Words: 168,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6303079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Balshumet/pseuds/Balshumet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny's fed up with Vlad meddling with his life. In an attempt to solve the problem, he makes a visit to Clockwork. In an impulsive act of frustration Danny changes the past, with the hope of fixing his future, but when he arrives it's nothing like he imagined. His entire family has been torn part, and an entirely new one is in it's place. Stuck in a future from hell, Danny has no choice but to work with Vlad to get back home. But what if the home he's known is no longer where the heart is?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. If A Hero Got Fed Up...

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! So I'm going to be slowly migrating over my fanfiction.net work to AO3 so it can be cross-posted. At the very least, the good stuff, so I can start posting more over here instead of over there. So, expect me to post a chapter a day until we get caught up with FF.net and then we'll post at the same time it's posted over there.

Bright emerald flashed across the sky. A thunderous sound, and then the ground shook in agony. Asphalt flew in retreat from the emerald flash; a tinge of pastel pink answered the wavering green. Pink attacked first this time, shaking the wine bottle green dome and shattering it like glass. A grunt of effort and the wielder of the green energy charged a blast in his hand until lime shaded, and fired. It bounced effortlessly off a cherry bomb colored shield, harmlessly absorbed.

A wicked cackle rung through the air, mocking, grating, and confident. **_He's_** _always calm,_ the green wielder thought irately. He fired a quick succession of volley shots meant to throw off his attacker's balance. To no avail, they were avoided deftly. The green wielder growled deep in his throat. _Was there no shaking this guy?_ A strong pink blast slammed into him, cutting off his thoughts.

"So my boy," a strong baritone drawled, "Ready to admit defeat? Or must I literally crush you beneath my heel before you yield?" The voice's owner punctuated his last remark by hovering his foot over the top of the green energy wielder's back. In response, he disappeared clean through the concrete only to appear a few feet off.

"Fat chance Vlad! You'd have a better chance curing your insanity. Unless," the boy paused in mock concern, "it's terminal?"

A smug smirk crept across Vlad's face, "The hard way then." A pink blast flew from his hands, and they were back at it again.

The green wielder flew up into the sky to avoid the blast, and gain the high ground.

Vlad quickly followed and sent another more vicious blast in his direction. Using his greater speed, he easily dodged the blast only to find himself running from a slew of them.

He dived down and zipped around near the ground. Dodging around a few parked cars, he used the few solid objects around to throw off Vlad's aim. Despite the younger ghost's spunk, it was quickly becoming obvious who had the upper hand.

"You know this would be much simpler, Daniel, if you just gave up now? I don't see why you persist in starting fights with your superiors." Danny charged and plowed into Vlad.

The two tumbled through the air for a moment before reorienting themselves in the air face to face.

"Superiors? Is that the best you've got today? And I didn't start this you did!"

Vlad responded by firing another ecto-blast.

Danny panted and put up another shield that was quickly destroyed.

"Details my boy. You came over to my home and began this fight."

"Only because you can't seem to keep your spies from out of _my_ house!" Danny screamed back, an ecto-blast fired to punctuate his point.

Vlad calmly raised another shield, and knitted his eyebrows together in annoyance. "Please Daniel, I have to keep an eye on my," Vlad paused to dodge a sloppily thrown punch from Danny. "Favorite and most promising asset."

"Asset?" Danny questioned incredulously. "I'm not one of your investments."

Vlad smiled before continuing, "I beg to differ. I've put a significant amount of time into your education already, even if you don't yet see it." He threw another attack Danny's way, and watched with muted interest as he turned intangible to avoid it.

"Well that was a waste of time on your part." Danny spat back while intangibly flying through a few more blasts. "I'm still nothing like you." He lost intangibility and fired a particularly large blast at Vlad, only to find him no longer there. Danny blinked at the burnt spot where Vlad had last occupied, and swiveled around looking for him. A hand closed around his black jumpsuit and levered him up.

"And that," Vlad stated with a dark chuckle in his tone, "is why you lose Daniel." Vlad held a glowing pink glove to Danny's face.

"Leave him alone!" A voice called from below where they were floating. The two of them snapped out of their personal battle, and focused on the owner of the voice below. A dark haired girl was leveling a large silver and green gun in their direction.

"How cute. And you think you'll be able to hit me, and not him?" Vlad questioned smugly.

"Your ego is big enough to aim for Fruitloop, now let me go!" Danny hissed.

Vlad smiled in dark humor before glancing beneath him again. "Very well Daniel. Girl," he addressed the one aiming with the weapon again, "catch." He tossed Danny directly into her, and watched in amusement as they disentangled themselves from each other. "It seems the time for games is at an end today. Daniel do yourself a favor and remember to actually come prepared next time. Well," he paused to chuckle, "as prepared as you ever manage in any case." And with that Vlad disappeared in a puff of pink smoke.

Danny, who had just managed to get back on his feet, glared up just in time to see the tail end of his teleportation. He fisted his hands in a show of impotent anger, and turned to help the dark-haired girl off the ground. "Sorry Sam." Danny grumbled.

"It's alright. He's the one who threw you, the ass." Danny snickered in response as Sam leaned over and picked up her fallen weapon. She hummed and looked it over for a bit, "at least it isn't broken or scratched."

"Which means I don't have to think of an excuse for why it is, only where it went." Danny replied. He scrunched up his eyebrows and glanced around. "By the way," he started and caught Sam's attention, "where is Tucker?" No sooner had he asked, than his last wayward friend came bounding around the corner.

Sam smirked and responded, "I left him a few blocks back when I started to sprint. You two need to get in better shape."

"Hey I get plenty of exercise! What do you call all of the ghost hunting I do?" Danny retorted.

"It doesn't count if you aren't human at the time, and speaking of which…" Sam trailed off and began looking for a place for Danny to change back.

Danny for his part found a still in one piece parked car perfect cover, and flew over it. In a flash of nearly blinding white light, he transformed back. Danny came from behind the car, just as a nearly exhausted Tucker caught up with the two of them.

"Hey…guys…" He wheezed through big gulps of air. "Where…"

"Vlad disappeared, probably to plot how to marry mom while looking over his spy cams again." Danny shuddered as he answered Tucker's open ended question. He frowned in took in his surroundings. Blasted cars fell apart in half scorched half melted disarray. Chunks of concrete littered the area, and not just on the ground. Plants were singed or outright burning. It was a mess, and more importantly, the appropriate authorities could be heard speeding to the area by the minute.

 _We need to get out of here._ Danny thought morosely, still in a poor mood over the lost fight. He voiced an approximation of his thoughts, "Come on guys, we don't want to be here when the police show up." His friends nodded in agreement, and they started the trek back to his house. It was 11pm, it was past curfew, and he hadn't succeeded and doing much more than be target practice.

 _And as if this day needed to get any worse, since I'm currently breaking curfew with my friends in tow, I'm going to be grounded forever. Well…I'm just going to have the current grounding extended again. Just my luck._ Danny was brought out of his musings when he turned the last corner to his house. "Hey guys, you go home from here, I can walk the rest of the way myself, and I don't need my parents yelling at you too." Danny stated. When they looked like they were going to object out of some friendly solidarity, he held up his hand.

"Come on guys, you're going to be in enough trouble with your parents as it is, just…just do this for me ok?" Tucker shrugged in response, and turned to leave. Sam looked about ready to argue the point, knowing that if they showed up, his parents were less likely to punish Danny as harshly, when Tucker grabbed her by the arm.

"Alright Danny," she said when the tugs got more insistent on her left arm, "but you better talk tomorrow, we want to know what Vlad's problem tonight was."

Danny nodded tiredly; vaguely grateful she hadn't started tonight. He was exhausted. It was the third fight this week, and while _he_ had started this particular one, the other two had been Vlad's and Skulker's doing sequentially. He trudged up the street, barely having the energy to drag his legs up the stairs now that the fight was over and the adrenaline had left his battered frame. _Damn._ He thought each time he lifted his legs up the next step to the front door of his house. The house was quiet, which he knew was actually a bad thing. His parents were obviously waiting on the other side of the door. _If I wasn't so sure sneaking up into my room with my ghost powers would make it worse I would._ Danny mentally groused as he slid his key into the lock. He had barely started twisting it when it flew open on its own. _Well, that is if I still had the energy to transform_.

He amended in his head just as the door opened to reveal his scowling parents. He didn't have to be a mind reader to know what they were thinking. _Something to the tune of, 'Danny! Why can't you just come home on time? This is the 5th time this week, are you even trying?'_ Danny sighed wearily, ready for the onslaught of concerned yelling, and angry condemnation for disobeying again. He wasn't disappointed. His mother and father had spent the better part of the last hour rubbing in his apparently appalling lack of obedience and considerable rebellious nature. He had another two weeks added to his nearly never ending grounding sentence; he had lost count of when he was supposed to actually be no longer grounded.

He was also pretty sure he would never actually stop being grounded in any case. He rolled over in his bed, trying to find a comfortable position. His sore muscles and not air soft mattress were making it quite a bit more difficult than necessary activity. He sighed and tried the 6th position of the last hour, and happily found it free of excessive pain. _Didn't have to throw me through that wall. Fruitloop…_ Just the thought of his face, smug and calm as usual, ruined what little comfort he could get from being in minimal pain. He frowned and decided to concentrate on something much more pleasant. _Like…like Paulina at the beach. Yeah that's better._ A vague sense of happiness settled over his mind, and he drifted off to sleep.

* * *

 

The next day, Danny was walking, relatively refreshed, next to his two best friends. "I can't believe he _bugs_ my freaking room! Talk about an invasion of privacy. I mean sheesh, I'm not sure what's worse. That he bugged my room, or that he called me an 'asset' of his last night, and he thinks he has some kinda right to bug my room in the first place. It would be different if it was just some kind of evil plot of his, where he needed to know my schedule or something, but no, it's him being entirely creepy and just… I don't know, watching me. No reason, nope, just to do so. Freak." Danny finished his little rant with a huff, and waited for his friends to respond. He didn't have to wait long for them to digest the new weird info.

"So you're telling me, he's been watching you sleep, listening to us hang out and our conversations, and basically being a stalker creep, just because?" Sam was practically screaming by the end of it.

"Yeah that's exactly what I'm saying." Danny agreed angrily. "I don't know, maybe he's gotten crazier since the last time we spoke, because at least he had reasons last time, but now? Geez, maybe he's trying to throw me off my game you know?"

Sam raised an eyebrow at the suggestion.

"Yeah maybe," Tucker started with a shake of his head, "or maybe he's just twisted and bored. Ever think you're his only entertainment?"

"That…is the most disturbing thought I've ever heard. Thank you Tucker, now I'm going to have bored Vlad watching 'Danny T.V.' stuck in my head for the rest of the day."

"Hey man! It's not my fault he's nuts." Tucker hastily replied in his defense.

"Yeah whatever, all I know is, I'm sick of his craziness ruining my life, and good mood. First running for mayor, and now spying, he needs to get a freaking life." Tucker opened his mouth, but Danny cut him off. "One that doesn't revolve around me," Danny paused in thought before adding, "or my parents either." He shook his head and began climbing up the steps to Casper High.

"Look on the bright side dude, at least it's Friday, and you know what that means."

"Sorry Tucker. Still grounded remember, no Nasty Burger for me." Danny griped irritably. "Besides, aren't you two grounded?" Danny asked. He had made it up nearly to the top when a shudder and a light blue wisp alerted him to supernatural company. _Oh great. As if I need any more trouble this week._ Danny thought miserably while scanning the area.

Sam and Tucker caught onto his reticence, and stopped at the top of the steps.

Before they could ask what was wrong, a terrified scream echoed across the front of the school. Everyone's eyes traveled upward as a trio of familiar ghostly vultures dive bombed the students on the outside of the school. With all of the attention focused upward, it was easy for Danny to find cover to transform. He flew out over Casper High's front lawn, and met the lead vulture mid-dive. With a swift kick to the gut, Danny cut off the lead bird's dive. "Didn't anyone ever tell you vultures only eat road kill? The only things dead around here are you."

"Very funny ghost boy. I'll have you know, we're too old to be eating something already dead."

"Yeah it gives us indigestion." The vultures quipped back. Danny rolled his eyes, and fired a small ecto-blast into the vulture who hadn't responded.

"Yeah well," he started while punching a second bird, "you're going to have to find a meal somewhere else that isn't my hometown." The third bird he hadn't attacked snuck up and grabbed Danny from behind with its talons.

Danny twisted in its grasp trying to free himself.

The vulture dived, and tossed him towards the concrete.

Danny turned intangible and slipped through the ground. "Why don't you guys just give up? It'll save me the trouble of having to clean up your goopy carcasses after I'm done with ya'." Danny floated back up above the front lawn of Casper High and crossed his arms.

"Can't say we can ghost boy."

"Yeah we're on official business." He was quickly surrounded by the ghostly vulture trio. Two of them dived towards Danny again with a battle cry.

Danny for his part rolled his eyes, turned intangible again, and then blasted the third vulture attempting to sneak up from beneath him. The other two vultures landed in a heap on the ground, having run into each other when Danny turned intangible. A loud bell rang through the air, and Danny sighed. _Great. Late for first period again._ He scrunched his eyebrows in annoyance, and blasted the retreating forms of the vultures.

"And stay gone." He said while looking for a place to transform. He floated behind a large oak tree and was bounding up the front steps moments later. A few minutes after that, he was seated late, and with another detention, in his first period math class. Sam and Tucker passed him sympathetic looks when the teacher wasn't looking to which Danny shrugged his shoulders. The class ended soon enough, and allowed the three of them to catch up in hallway.

"Sorry about the detention dude, that sucks."

"Not like it's your fault Tuck. It's not even Mr. Fallucane's fault, it's those stupid vultures."

"What did they want?" Sam asked.

"I don't know something about official business in town. Whatever. I bet it has something to do with Vlad. Those three work for him."

"Yeah but what does he want Casper High?"

"Nothing." Danny answered hastily. "Well, I have one idea." He grumbled out. When he didn't elaborate, Sam passed him a pointed look. Danny sighed and stopped in front of his locker. "Ok, ok. Vlad's probably just testing me or something. What with him wanting to teach me or something."

"Trying to keep on your toes?" Tucker offered.

"Yeah something like that, but I'm sick of it." Tucker and Sam shared a look, before catching up with Danny in the hallway.

"Yeah I know he's an obnoxious prick," Sam started, "but that doesn't mean you should go starting trouble with him Danny."

"Why not? He starts stuff with me all the time."

"Yeah but dude, you've been in two fights with him already this week. You're exhausted. I mean sure you can handle those vultures and the ecto-pusses, but that doesn't mean you should start another fight with him this week if you can help it." Danny opened his argue the point when Sam interrupted him.

"Come on Danny. Just give yourself some time to recover, and I'm sure you'll kick his butt all over Amity Park." Danny frowned when he realized his friends were right. It didn't make him not want to fight Vlad anymore, but he did need to rest. Besides, as long as those vultures were the only thing he had to deal with today, it wouldn't be so bad.

"Alright guys. You're right. I do need to rest, but he keeps messing with me, if not in person, he gets his lackeys to do it for him." Danny sighed as they neared his second period class. "Look guys, I appreciate the advice, and I'll try to keep it. I promise I'll leave this alone till next week, as long as he and his cronies leave me alone the rest week. Deal?"

Sam frowned, but knowing that was they were going to get out him, nodded her head.

"Deal dude. And you had better keep that promise." Tucker said, as he and Sam walked off towards their classroom a few rooms down. The rest of the day passed uneventfully until lunch. Besides the gurgling lukewarm mess the lunch ladies were attempting to pass off as nacho dip, the cafeteria was in good shape.

Danny set his tray down next to his two best friends and took a seat. "So, how about this bean dip?" Danny said with a chuckle.

Sam scrunched her nose in disgust before turning back to her home made lunch of wheat grass and soy bean salad. "I say it needs more meat." Tucker stuck a spoon into the glop and stirred it forlornly.

"Hey come on Sam, it doesn't even have meat in it. What's the matter?" Danny held a spoon filled with the stuff out towards Sam.

"Ew Danny no. That stuff is not organic. And that juice probably was made with meat. I can smell the suffering from here."

Tucker rolled his eyes, and swallowed down a mouthful of the questionable substance. "Yeah right Sam. The only one suffering here is me. I can promise there was no meat anywhere in the making of this meal. I can _taste_ the vegetables." Tucker stuck his tongue out and wiped it vigorously with his sleeve.

"And what's wrong with vegetables?" Tucker opened his mouth, but Sam cut him off. "Nothing that's what. But I can tell you what's wrong with meat!"

Danny smiled at his friends' antics. They really couldn't go more than a day without arguing the importance or moral failings of those two food groups. Unfortunately, his good mood was ruined by a little light blue smoke. _Unbelievable! What it's only been 3 hours. He couldn't leave well enough alone for three freaking hours?_ Danny thought irately.

A quick scan of the room produced no ghostly entities. Danny frowned as the minutes passed and nothing showed up. He was about to brush the incident off as a passing spirit and mediate between his best friends, when two familiar ghost octopus flew through the ceiling. Danny glared at the two of them, before the cafeteria erupted into chaos. A few swift punches and kicks later, and he had scared the two ecto-pusses out of Casper High.

Sam grumbled as she slid the last of the wasted bean dip from the cafeteria kitchen out of her hair. "Well…that was-"

"Awful is what it was." Tucker supplied.

"I agree; I'll stink like this bean mess for the rest of the day. I don't know if I'll ever get the smell out of my clothes. Nasty." Sam griped and scrubbed at the remaining residue with a napkin. She scowled when it refused to come off her skirt, and only ground deeper into the fabric. "Fan-freaking-tastic." She grumbled.

"NO!" Tucker cried out while cradling something in his arms.

The scream shocked Sam out of her staring trance with her likely ruined skirt. "Tucker what's-"

"This stupid bean juice totally trashed my PDA! I'll have to clean it out before it'll work again. I don't even know how long it's going to take, but I'll be without it for at least the rest of the day, and Sam-" Tucker looked at her with gravity in his gaze. "I left my back-up at home." Tucker finished with an extra hug to his non-working PDA.

Sam shook her head; she knew he'd have it working like new before the weekend was out. He was a techno-wiz, but still being without it for even a few hours was sure to drive him nuts. Which by proxy meant Tucker was going drive her and Danny crazy too. _Speaking of which, he's been awfully quiet._ Sam walked over to where Danny was sitting in exploded bean muck. "So…" She offered to get him talking. When he didn't take the bait, she squatted into the mess with him. _Not like this skirt's ever getting clean anyway._ She waited patiently for him to start talking.

Danny clenched and unclenched his teeth and squeezed his eyes even tighter shut. He was so angry he couldn't get them to stop flashing green, and he didn't need more trouble today. "Danny?" Sam poked him in the arm. Danny let out an aggravated hiss and clenched his fists. _Damn it._

"Sam," Danny started at length, "I'm going to kill him." Sam rolled her eyes.

"Come on Danny it's not-"

"Not what? That bad? What do you call four-no-five attacks in a week, spying on my life, beating me up, trying to kill me dad, marry my mom, and ruin my social life? What do you call, being covered in bruises, and scrapes and finding concrete dust in all your clothes because you've been thrown through that many walls this week? What do you call never ending detentions, groundings, and punishment? I mean if that's not bad, then hell I must be living the high life!"

"Danny that's not _all_ Vlad's fault."

"Maybe not Sam, but he sure isn't helping, and I'm tired of letting him get away with it."

"So what are you going to do about it dude? I mean you did promise to leave him-"

"Yeah if he left me alone, and he didn't. Well if he wants to fight, I'm bringing the fight to him." Danny's lips formed a thin line as he thought about getting a little retribution.

Tucker sighed, when Danny was like this, there was just no convincing him otherwise. He could be as stubborn as a concrete block sometimes. "Ok man, so what are you planning on doing?"

Danny's determined set faced brightened into a smile. "Tuck, you remember those mini-cameras you made for that science project 7th grade year?"

"Yeah but-"

"Good we are going to need those, and some kinda microphone. Can you like, I don't know, use the ones inside walkie talkies or an old cell phone to transmit or something?"

Tucker grinned ear to ear, getting Danny's drift. "I can do better than that dude; one mini spy set coming up."

Sam couldn't help but smile at the two of their antics, despite the feeling this was going to end badly as usual.

" _Adventures of Huck Finn_ Fenton, what are you and Foley plotting now?" The two of them jumped at Mr. Lancer's voice.

"M-Mr. L-Lancer!" Danny stammered. "Nothing sir, we were just…"

"Just talking about a new science project. Yeah, it's for my electronics class. Danny was just helping me come up with ideas. Right Danny?"

Danny nodded energetically.

Mr. Lancer raised an eyebrow at the duo's cover story, but said no more on the subject. "Well whatever you two are doing, finish your talk somewhere else. Like maybe your afternoon classes? Unless you'd like to do so in detention?"

"No Mr. Lancer!" The two shouted in unison, and took off with Sam out of the cafeteria doors.

* * *

 

Later that evening, Danny, Sam and Tucker huddled over an assortment of electrical equipment in Tucker's bedroom. Tucker's face was drawn in concentration as he moved a few more wires into place in piece of equipment about the size of a dime. A few seconds later, he sat back with a huff, and smiled down at his handy work. An dozen similar devices sat on a make-shift table made of plastic storage containers.

"Ok, so these are audio devices. There are enough to bug the main used parts of his house. They have a 50ft range, and you'll want to place them in the middle of a room, so you get full use out of them, cause they aren't powerful enough to 'hear' through walls." Tucker then picked up another 5 quarter sized devices. "And these are all cameras. If you give me another day I can make some more, but something tells me you want them today. They aren't the best, but they will get decent quality.

All of these devices are remotely transmitting to this baby." He said gesturing to his newly fixed PDA. "They have limited battery life though, and I can't recharge them from here or anything. So even though we'll be able to get live feed and audio, you'll have to go back and get them to change batteries. Besides, the longer they are there, the more likely they are to be discovered." Tucker finished his speech, and turned towards Danny.

"Ok Tuck, now I all I have to do is place these devices. I can think of a few good places. Hey are these things water proof?"

"Of course they are. Just what kind of techno-geek do you take me for?"

"Perfect." Danny purred.

Sam rolled her eyes. "Danny, you aren't going to stick those in a bathroom are you?"

"Of course I am. And in his bedroom, and lab, and that private study of his too. At least those places, and if I have leftovers, anywhere else I can get good embarrassing shots for the internet. I'm sure all of Youtube is dying to know what color boxers Vlad Masters wears to bed." Danny said with an impish grin.

"Hey man, assuming he wears boxers, and not briefs."

"Good point. See Sam? This is important information. Inquiring minds need to know." Sam huffed and threw her hands into the air. Still she was anything but exasperated with them. She wanted a little revenge for Vlad's constant meddling as much as any of them. She still hadn't forgiven him for those dress code, Nasty burger buying, nearly witch burning incidents in the past, and she wasn't about to complain about him getting some kind of embarrassing comeuppance.

Danny began stuffing the various equipment into the pouches of the bag he was bringing for the infiltration.

"Alright, but just be careful. I'm sure he won't be happy to find you in his house, and especially carrying stuff for spying on him. So just-"

"Stay out of sight?" Danny finished while turning invisible. He chuckled before adding, "I think I can handle that part Sam. See you guys tomo-," Danny paused and changed his sentence. "See you guys on Monday, maybe if I'm extra good, my parents will let me use the internet to talk to you two over the weekend." Danny offered with a shrug. He flew through Tucker's bedroom window, and turned visible again for a moment to wave goodbye to Sam and Tucker before heading off to the mayor's house.

A ten minute flight later, Danny Phantom was hovering just out of sight in the tree line of the Mayor's front lawn. Or he would have been just out of sight, if he wasn't still invisible. Danny was contemplating his line of attack. _I could just come through the front door. He doesn't have any ghost shields on, so it's not like he can stop me. But then again, I need to be in an out of here fast, and all the good stuff is on the second floor. I should just phase through the roof, but he's more likely to have security on the roof._

Danny shuddered as he remembered the large ecto-guns that popped out of the roof on a misguided flight too close to the house on another occasion. He frowned when he realized he had been floating there for nearly ten minutes in indecision. When a delivery truck pulled up to the front door, Danny knew the decision was made for him. He set off for the roof, making sure to stay as close to the trees as he could for the entire trip. Staying invisible, Danny moved away from the foliage and flew directly over the roof the large imposing manor. He took a deep breath to steel himself and dived directly at the structure below. A few terse seconds later, Danny found himself inside the second floor of Vlad's house.

He took another deep breath, and flew down a hallway to where he thought he remembered Vlad's bedroom being. He found the room without incident, and amazingly even placed a few of the bugs in the bedroom and adjoining bathroom. Danny set off down another hall towards the private study. He phased through the door, and finding no one around, placed the bugs in there and pulled down on the left football player to open the passage to the lab. Danny floated silently down the passage way to the lab below. He stopped a few paces before the end of the narrow hallway that lead to the lab, to peak around the corner.

It was odd that he hadn't encountered any kind of security or personnel, and he wasn't taking any chances in what was typically the most well guarded part of Vlad's house. He glanced carefully around the edge of the corner, and peered into what appeared to be an empty lab. After a few mores seconds of scanning, Danny slipped around the corner, and began looking for the best place to position the spy cameras and audio bugs he had left. He floated over to a spot in the upper corner of the lab to place a camera, when a loud bang emanated from across the lab.

Danny flew for cover, forgetting that he was still invisible, and ducked behind a large computer terminal. Several more large clangs rang throughout the lab, still echoing from somewhere on the opposite end of the room. After a few moments, Danny noticed they had a rhythmic quality to it. Getting more curious by the second, he drifted from his hiding spot and towards the source of the sounds. The banging grew louder and louder until he rounded a massive series of computer storage servers. He managed to stifle a gasp at what he saw next.

Skulker was hammering away at a large machine with his back to where Danny had flown into view. Next time to him was an array of wrenches, hammers, screwdrivers, and other tools strewn with little organization around his feet.

Danny frowned, and slid behind another computer terminal for cover. _Darn it! Here was I hoping no one was around. Well if I'm quiet I can finish setting the bugs in the other part of the lab. Maybe…_ Danny made up his mind and began to head back towards the unoccupied section of the lab.

Just then, Skulker dropped the hammer he had been working with and stood.

Danny froze, half-way to the entrance to this part of the lab, thinking he had been heard.

"Well that's the last of the adjustments. Hopefully, that will be the last upgrade I need to make to the power supply for awhile." Skulker mumbled to himself. He floated over to console covering nearly the entire back wall of the room, and typed a few keystrokes onto the keyboard. It instantly jumped to life, and the screen flickered on an odd translucent green. Skulker hummed in thought, and typed a few seconds longer. Danny started for the door again, hoping Skulker was suitably distracted.

A few breathless seconds later, Danny was out of sight and back in the first section of the lab, holding his bag. He spent several quiet minutes setting up the last of the home-made bugs, before a cracking a grin. He was basically home free, Skulker or no. Danny looked over the lab with its spying devices in place on last time, before making a bee-line for the door. A loud siren went off in the lab, complete with blood colored lights.

"Intruder alert!" A familiar voice warned throughout the lab. A hologram appeared right in front of Danny, blocking the only exit to the lab. "Just what do you think you are doing in here young man?" The hologram cleared into the blue hazmat clad vision of his mother. It crossed its arms and scowled in a perfect replica of Maddie Fenton.

"I-er-" Danny stammered. He had been wondering where the usual security had disappeared to.

"You know you aren't allowed down here." The Maddie hologram said disapprovingly. _Wow. I don't know what's weirder; the fact that he can make such a great hologram of my mom, or the fact it can actually make me feel guilty._ Danny pondered.

"Listen, I need to get out of here. I know I shouldn't be down here, and, I'm leaving see?" Danny tried to float towards the exit again, only to be hindered by the hologram.

"No can do little mister! You're going to stay here until my pumpkin gets home. I'm sure he'll be able to think of a suit-Wait what's this?" The hologram floated to right over the spot Danny had placed his last bug. Danny barely had time to think 'uh-oh' before another alarm was set off by the system finding his bug. "You've planted spy devices all over my sweetums' house! You are in big trouble young man."

"I'd agree." Skulker said while floating into that part of the lab. He withdrew a huge spectrally charged sword from behind his back, and leveled it at Danny. "So whelp, you're in my employer's house for the second time this week. This time you're planting some pathetic attempt at spying technology. Is it just me, or do you have a death wish this week?" Skulker asked hefting the sword closer to Danny.

For his part, Danny dropped his backpack, and crouched into a fighting stance. He hadn't been planning on another fight, especially after how hectic this week had been, but if Skulker wanted a fight, a fight he would get.

Skulker leered dangerously before diving towards Danny with a yell.

Danny flew up towards the ceiling to avoid the blow, and fired an ecto-blast at Skulker. He reflected the blast off his sword, and back at Danny. The blast slammed into him, tossed him across the room, and into one of the numerous computer terminals in the room.

"Like it pup? It's a nice upgrade Plasmius gave me." Skulker gloated.

Danny grunted as he pulled himself from the dented wreckage of the terminal he landed in. "It is nice Skulker. You would need an upgrade to stand a chance against me." Danny retorted while firing another two blasts at Skulker.

Skulker bounced them back, and Danny quickly dodged. " _Need_ an upgrade? No ghostling, I need no upgrades. I'm the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter. These," he said while summoning up two massive steel and blue toned guns, "are payment for my services. Not handicaps to beat you with. I could do so with my hands-"

Danny cut off his monologue with a roundhouse kick to the jaw. "Yeah? Well if you could do so with your hands, then why don't you instead of using that metal contraption?" Danny turned intangible in time to have two blasts from the blue and sliver ecto-guns to pass harmlessly through.

Skulker growled low and menacingly. He drew out his sword again, and charged Danny with a scream.

Danny stepped to the right to avoid the strike, and turned to catch Skulker's back with a blast. Too bad Skulker had already fired, and the attack flung him inches from Vlad's ghost portal. He slammed into the wall on the left of the portal, and landed in a pained heap on the ground. Danny blinked his eyes open to find a gun pointed directly at his head.

"That, ghost-child, was pure skill. No upgrade needed." And with that, Skulker pushed a button on his suit's arm. The ghost portal next to Danny flashed into life. "So, ready to become a pelt on my-" Skulker stopped short; Danny was nowhere to be seen. He flashed a predatory smile, and began scanning the room for his opponent.

Behind a corner not fifteen feet away, Danny was trying to catch his breath. Ordinarily, a fight with Skulker would be a piece of cake, but after two fights with Vlad, and two fights earlier that day; he was having trouble summoning up the energy to give Skulker a challenge. _Oh man, I'm in serious trouble. I have to get out of here, before Skulker can really make good on that 'pelt-on-my-mantle' idea he's always spouting off about._

"Where are you hiding ghost child?" Skulker floated calmly through the room, with the control panel of his suit flipped open.

Danny felt a cold sweat break out on his skin; he'd seen Skulker use that little device before. It made his invisibility completely useless. Not the best feeling when it was the only thing he had at the moment, with no plan forth coming. _I was never the best at making plans that don't involve hit it till he gives up._ Danny mentally groused. So he decided to go with his usual plan, 'hit it till it gives up'. It hadn't really failed him yet, not counting Vlad. Danny flew around behind Skulker and dropped invisibility as he fired an ecto-blast.

Skulker smiled. He had been waiting for that attack. With surprising deftness, he drew his sword, blocked and reflected the attack back at Danny in one move.

The counter-attack caught Danny off guard, and it flew uninhibited into his gut. It sent him sailing backwards and straight into the now active Ghost Portal. Danny appeared through the other side of the Portal, in the recognizable swirling green and purple atmosphere of the Zone. He tumbled head over heel in the nearly zero gravity space of the spectrally charged atmosphere for a few seconds before gaining control. Danny held his head in his hands, and floated behind a small rocky outcropping of glowing green ghost rock.

"Ok, that did not go as planned. Note to self, destroy that energy bouncing sword." Danny shook his head to clear the rest of the pain induced cobwebs, before taking stock of his surroundings. A small frown marred his features, as he realized he had been thrown into the Zone. "Well this is just perfect, no way I can go back through Vlad's portal, I'll have to travel through the Zone all the way to ours at home."

"I know you're in here ghost-child. I saw you go through the portal. Why don't you save me the trouble of hunting you down, and come out right now." Skulker waited a few moments before adding, "Unless you are too terrified."

Danny clenched his fists and waited a few minutes. As much as he wanted to punch Skulker in the jaw for that, he didn't have the energy for it right now. _Not with those new upgrades. Second note to self, kick Vlad's ass for giving him those._

Skulker flew to and fro for a few more minutes in the area, before trying to key into Danny's energy signal with his control pad.

Danny held his breathe, even with all the ambient energy in the zone, his signature was distinct. There weren't many half-ghosts around after all.

Right before he typed in the last command to hone in on Danny's signal, Skulker heard a loud chirp from his communicator. He scowled and started to type in the command again, when it chirped even louder. With a huff of annoyance, Skulker announced to the air in front of him, "You're lucky whelp. It seems my employer has need of me. You escape, for today." With another few glances sparred for the sparse and glowing scenery of this part of the zone, Skulker turned and headed back towards Vlad's portal.

Danny heaved a sigh of relief, of all the times for Vlad to come in handy. "Vlad. Damn it, this is all his fault in the first place. Skulker's his stupid employee, _and_ he's the one who gave him all those new weapons. Hell, I bet he ordered those two attacks on my school earlier, just to 'keep me out of his hair', or something stupid like that." Danny floated from behind his hiding spot. With a sigh, he headed off in the most likely direction of the Fenton portal before abruptly stopping. Danny crossed his arms and growled.

 _No. I'm not limping home_ ** _again_** _from another battle. I'm not putting up with this anymore. No more random 'friendly' visits to hang with my dad, otherwise known as attempt to kill him. No more nice 'compliments' or 'gifts' for my mom, otherwise known as flirting for lonely 40-year-old men. No more bruises and surprise attacks. No more stupid plots. None of it! There has to be a way to get Vlad out of my hair. But what?_ Green translucent rocks drifted past him, as Danny paused in thought in the middle of the Zone. Suddenly, like a thunderbolt, an idea hit him. He nearly slammed his palm into his forehead, the answer was so obvious. With a new destination in mind, Danny soared off farther into the zone.

* * *

 

He only had one shot at this. It's not like just anyone knew where this was. He sighed as he made another pass through an empty section of the Zone. There weren't even the usual drifting rocks, or floating landmasses of the Zone. Only the bright swirling energy vortexes of the Zone were visible, and even they seemed to be high off in the distance, like some invisible barrier was keeping them at bay. He made another pass around the desolate section of the Zone, and growled in frustration.

He knew it was here, he knew it like he knew how to breathe. He'd been here before, several times in fact. It was the finding part that was always so difficult. He glanced at the watch strapped to his wrist again; it still kept meticulous time as usual. He was just about to give up, when the watch suddenly stopped. He smiled in relief; he was getting sick of flying around in circles. With a deep breath, he flew into what looked to be empty space and disappeared. If he had thought about it more, he would have decided against doing this. When he thought about it later, he'd wonder what in the world had possessed him to try something quite this stupid.

When he thought and ached after it all ended, he'd wonder if it could have been avoided after all. Fate was fickle that way; maybe even if he had tried to avoid it, taken the advice given at the beginning of his journey, it would have still happened anyway. But right then, right now, all Danny Phantom was thinking about, was how to sneak into the large dark tower sitting in front of him without notice. Because he had a Medallion to borrow, and some _when_ else to be.

**…then he might make a visit to the keeper of time.**

 


	2. If You Find a Time Medallion…

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny pays a visit to the Master of Time...

_Would calling this place deathly quiet be ironic? This place is so silent it makes crypts sound deafening. In fact, it's so still I think I can hear my own thoughts echo. Well it being quiet is a good thing right? It means I won't run into trouble, or maybe it means I'm the nosiest thing around so trouble will still find me. Yeah that's me, the noise maker, walking around in the middle Clockwork's tower in the Realm Beyond Time. Yup, just out for a normal lazy Friday stroll…through the Forbidden Zone and all. Damn it, what am I doing here?_ Danny continued his personal monologue as he crept through the bowels of Clockwork's citadel. He had managed to find the entrance to the Realm Beyond Time with moderate difficulty, but that was to be expected, the entrance was invisible after all.

At the moment, he was sneaking his way up Clockwork's tower, inside his citadel, Clockwork's personal domain. Unlike most ghosts, whose domain was signified by a specific door, Clockwork's was heralded by none. The only thing that distinguished his specific space from the empty coldness of the rest of the Zone, was the peculiar stopping of time, at the entrance to his territory. If one didn't know what to look for, they could easily pass it, even if given specific logistic instructions from someone who had been there. Danny floated at a crawling pace higher and higher into the tower.

He didn't want to run into anyone. Besides Clockwork, Danny knew the Observants, _and_ their guards lived here. And while he was sure Clockwork wouldn't mind the friendly, if sudden visit, he wasn't so sure about the creatures who had once demanded his mentor of sorts end his life. This was especially so when he was on a mission to borrow something he had no business tampering with. Danny rounded another set of stairs, higher still into the tower. Clockwork's personal study, with his viewing screen and library was at the top. He floated along, not willing to risk the sound of his footfalls in the stairwell. _Besides,_ he reasoned, _it's a long way up, and I'm already tired._

A few more tense, silent, long minutes passed before he entered, unmolested, into Clockwork's private study. Danny's head swiveled left and then right; no one to be seen. He frowned; it wasn't like Clockwork to leave his tower unguarded. If he wasn't home, and he didn't seem to be, then surely he would leave guards in his place. Danny glided over towards the bookcase where Clockwork kept his repentant supply of books. To the left of them should be what he came for. Amity Park's hero slowed his floating to a snail's pace, hoping to even silence the displacement of air his passage caused through the tower's study.

Finally, and all too soon, he neared where Clockwork kept his most powerful devices, besides his staff. On a rack, hanging on something similar to key rings in the human world, hung the Time Medallions. There were five of them, with dark purple silk cloth tied to the golden pocket watches beneath. Danny held his breath, it wasn't as if he had lungs in ghost form in any case, and reached out for the nearest Medallion. It truly was almost too easy.

"Time in!" A solid voice resonated from opposite of where Danny now stood.

Danny shook his head, entirely disoriented. He could have sworn he was 100ft ahead of where he was now standing, about to make a grab for a Time Medallion. _How exactly did I-_

"Danny Phantom, how nice of you to visit." A bent and crooked form glided into Danny's line of sight.

Danny gasped. Dark purple robes, long white beard, staff with a clock on top, there was no doubt in his mind who it was. He was caught.

"Uh yeah, heh." Danny muttered nervously while rubbing an arm.

"And to what do I owe this visit young Phantom? Having trouble with a certain enemy of yours again? Or perhaps off to save the world as usual young hero." Clockwork inquired innocently.

Danny shifted from one foot to the other. He had been hoping to just grab one of those Medallions and run for it. In retrospect, it had been a really poorly thought out plan. _I mean who sneaks up on the guardian of all time?_ Danny mentally berated himself. He sighed and shifted his feet some more. He was a bad liar, and he wasn't about to try and learn now, most especially to someone who probably already knew why he was here.

"I was hoping I could borrow, one of your Time Medallions."

"For what reason?" Clockwork shifted forms mid-sentence, his voice changing from old and graveled to youthful and bright.

"I-uh-um. Ok. So Vlad is causing trouble again." Danny started. When Clockwork didn't respond, Danny continued. "I mean, he's always causing trouble, but just more than usual. At least for me. I don't know what his problem is this time, but I've been beaten up four times this week. Well I've been in six fights, and well I know I fight a lot, but those are all his doing." Danny paused in mid-ramble for a breath.

"That's very interesting young Phantom, but I fail to see the need for one of my Time Medallions."

"That's just it, I'm out of ideas."

"So you were hoping to borrow some from the time stream?" Clockwork coyly asked.

"What? No!" Danny blustered out. "What I mean is, I'm out of ideas that don't involve either A) Revealing both of our secrets. B) Killing him. C) Letting him get what he wants. And since all of those are completely not happening, I decided to go with option D."

"Which is young Phantom?"

"Which is D ask Clockwork for help." Danny finished with a huff as if it should have been completely obvious.

Clockwork gave Danny a small smile before changing forms again, this time to his adult form. "I am flattered by your trust in me Phantom. However, I can offer no help. It is, as you would understand it, against the rules for me to interfere with the choices of someone inside the time stream, and so, I can offer you no assistance."

Danny's face twisted into a frown. "That's not true!" He argued back. "You've helped me before, like plenty of times."

Clockwork hummed before adding, "Indeed I have young Phantom, but only because _not_ doing so would either cause further disruption to the time stream, or at the behest of my," Clockwork paused and changed forms again, "employers."

"You mean the guys who wanted me dead?"

"Correct young Phantom." Danny began pacing the room. He hadn't come all this way to be told no.

"So you can't offer me advice or assistance right?" Clockwork nodded his currently wizened head in agreement. "Then what if I just do something? You don't have to tell me if it's the right choice or not, I'll just do it and-"

"You see Danny, that depends entirely on the choice you are about to make. I can allow you to make any choice, expect that which would disrupt the time stream for others." Clockwork supplied.

"So if I was to use one of your Time Medallions, you could stop me, interfere with that choice, but you can't tell me what to eat for lunch on Tuesday."

Clockwork smiled at Danny's deduction. "That is correct. I may interfere only so much as to stop you from interfering with the time path of others, as my duty to the stability of the time stream is first and foremost above all other duties."

Danny's pace picked up, as he tried to logic his way into advice from the time ghost. "So you can give me advice to _not_ mess with those Medallions, and I can feel free to ignore it, and you can stop me, but you can't interfere in any other way." Danny stopped pacing and glanced up at Clockwork.

Clockwork's small smile broke out into a full-fledged grin. "Very good young Phantom. So what decision regarding these Medallions need I convince you to _not_ make?" Clockwork worded his sentence carefully. While they had found a loophole, he still needed to speak gingerly.

Danny returned his grin wholeheartedly, before scrunching his eyebrows in concentration. He had caught the interesting way Clockwork had worded his sentence. He knew he had to ask questions carefully to get what he wanted. "I need convincing to not go back into the past." Danny stated.

"For what reason do you seek to travel there young Phantom? For how am I to convince you otherwise, unless I know your reasons for seeking this journey?"

"I want to make sure Vlad doesn't become my enemy." Danny answered. He was sticking to statements, it was easier that way. If Clockwork asked the questions, there was no way they weren't in the clear.

Clockwork frowned, and glided silently towards his large viewing screen. "But have you not tried as much in the past? You know as well as I that those attempts lead to nothing but failure and the destabilization of the time stream."

"I understand that, but I was going about it all wrong. I need to know where in the past I can end up, so that I can prevent Vlad from turning evil, but not stop me from being born."

"I cannot tell you that young Phantom; you need only know that the past is off-limits to you." Clockwork spoke sternly.

Danny realized he had beaten down the wrong path, and tried another angle. "You can't tell me when to go back to intervene, but can you show me a time when Vlad wasn't evil?" Clockwork looked ready to refuse. "I need to know that he wasn't always so bad, so I can be convinced to try and redeem him in the present, instead of the past."

Clockwork's impassive mask slipped a little in surprise. _Clever boy_ he thought, before bringing his staff to the fore of the screen. The screen swirled to life before a scene flashed into view. "Here is your proof Danny, for in this time, Vlad Masters still leads an ordinary life, ghost powered or not."

Danny drew closer to the screen, and tried to identify something inside of it. Pictured, was an idyllic view of Amity Park from the sky. He'd seen it many times in his nightly patrols over the town. The view zoomed in on his family home, and effortlessly jumped inside. The dining room table was set for four, and surprisingly Vlad was helping set up the table. His mom, much younger than her current age, was taking a casserole out of the oven. His dad was nowhere to be seen, but when everyone's heads swiveled it was obvious he was just out of view in the new family lab. The fourth seat was taken by a bright red haired infant. She looked to be only a few months old, and her smiling cherubim face lit up the adults' faces with smiles of their own.

"What is this?" Danny asked.

Clockwork frowned in disapproval. "As I said your proof Danny Phantom."

"Oh no, I mean, when is this? I didn't know Vlad ever got along with my family. I don't remember-"

"You would not young Phantom, for you do not yet exist. It was but a small window of time, where Vlad Masters' heart was not yet consumed by hatred and jealousy. He, here, is all the good you are."

Danny eyebrows practically shot to the moon in response.

"It might surprise you Danny," Clockwork spoke with a chuckle in his tone, "but your mortal enemy of sorts was only an ordinary man at one time. Here he only wishes to have a family, and is content to share it with your father."

"What changed his mind?" Danny asked absentmindedly.

"I cannot answer that young Phantom." Clockwork hastily replied.

"What made him evil, _when_ did he decide to give this all up?"

"And how will that help you decide if he is worth redemption in this time?" Clockwork retorted.

"It won't."

Clockwork raised an eyebrow.

"But it will help me know how to avoid his mistakes. The last thing the future wants is an evil me right?" Danny offered.

Clockwork once again had to praise Danny's quick thinking and logic. _He's not as stupid as he pretends to be._ The screen swirled again, and shifted to some point in the future of the last scene. Maddie was holding a still small, but slightly older red haired child in her arms. She was standing outside a tiny, but well furnished apartment suitcase in hand. She walked out the door and began down the steps leading to the exit of the building.

Vlad quickly appeared after her. He was flustered, half dressed, and sporting a case of 5'o'clock shadow. Maddie continued down the stairs completely disregarding the flustered Vlad nipping at her heels. She reached the bottom of the stairwell, and headed in a brisk clip towards the door. It was dark outside; it was the middle of the night.

Danny scrunched his face in confusion at the scene. "There's no sound." He commented. With a wave of his staff the scene rewound, and this time played through with sound.

"Maddie where are you going? It's 3am!" Vlad's distraught voice called from out of the screen.

"Home Vlad, I'm going home."

"Home Maddie? This is your home. Hold on a minute!" Vlad rushed out after Maddie's retreating form.

"I can't stay here Vlad. _We_ can't stay here."

"Of course you can!" Vlad argued back as he followed her down the stairs. "You can stay here as long as you like, why can't you?"

"Because we don't belong here Vlad." Maddie's voice crackled from the early hour and her emotional stress. "I need to go home, my real home, with my husband."

"Maddie…Madeline! Wait just a minute! Come back here and talk this over with me. You can't leave in the middle of the night, this is ridiculous. Come back here!" Vlad's voice grew to a fever pitched as he rushed down the last flight of stairs and into the lobby. Maddie paused at the door to the lobby, and turned around to face Vlad again. Her face was tear-streaked, but determined.

"I'm so sorry Vlad; I never should have come over here. Please forgive me, for…all of this." Maddie pushed open the door and walked out into the night. "I'm so sorry." She whispered one last time before disappearing into a waiting car on the curb.

"Maddie please come back. You-you just can't leave me like this. You can't…Maddie…" Vlad sobbed bitterly into the empty space where Maddie Fenton had been standing. The screen went black before starting back up again, at the beginning of the scene. It played through three more times before Danny snapped out of the staring trance with the viewer. His breath came in short gasps, his palms were sweating, and he felt physically ill. He was almost convinced that if he had a stomach at the moment he would vomit. _What the hell did I just watch? Why was my mom at Vlad's house? **When** the hell did this happen? And…why do I suddenly feel like I already **know** the answer to why Vlad turned evil? _ Danny gulped down the queasy shakes in his stomach. He needed to find his voice.

"This is great and all, I mean freaky for a couple different reasons, but thanks for sharing. But still, this doesn't answer my question."

Clockwork fixed a hard stare in Danny's direction. "I think you know the answer to your question young Phantom. It is the reason for your un-ease. Perhaps a few more moments of self-examination will supply the reason to the forefront of your mind." Danny didn't have to say it out loud to know exactly what the reason was. He lived the nightmare, the distant shadow as a constant fear every day of his life. Every day since the day he learned it was possible he could lose every one of them. He wasn't about to re-examine that particular line of thought any further, and he didn't have to. He had his answer, it just wasn't the one he wanted to hear.

"It can't be true." Danny whispered.

"Enlighten me Danny. What can't be true?" Clockwork prompted.

Danny let out a shaky sigh, and rubbed both his arms. He felt freezing cold, like he had just been submerged in ice water, and it wasn't from the environment. "He can't have turned evil because of that." Danny supplied evasively.

"And why not? I see no reason he should be so immune, when you are not." Clockwork's words hit like an anvil to his stomach.

"Because it would mean-"

"That the two of you aren't so different after all." Clockwork finished. He added, "Yes, but I think just about everyone but you believes that." The screen drifted into mindless swirls, before settling back off in blank blackness.

Danny let out another shaky sigh before starting to pace again. Several minutes passed in silence. Danny had taken to floating the entire time he was in Clockwork's citadel, so his footfalls made no noise. Clockwork waited patiently for Danny to continue his tirade, for he knew he would. He sighed; he of all people knew dissuading the stubborn boy from a path was nearly impossible. He knew the odds intimately, had seen every possible way the conversation, _this_ conversation could have gone.

It didn't mean he hadn't wanted to stop it from taking place. Being able to see every future, did not preclude him from preferences between them. The path the boy had chosen, had in all but a few chosen, to take was a harrowing one. At least he could take comfort in him not being alone on this journey. Still, _I would be remiss if I did not try to dissuade him one last time._

Danny stilled his pacing, and turned around to face Clockwork again. He just had to convince him that this shouldn't happen. How could he though without jeopardizing his family? For Danny knew and understood it intimately now, his family's existence, perhaps even his very own, was the reason Vlad had chosen the way he did. If Vlad didn't come to be a half-ghost, then his parents would never have married. If Vlad hadn't gotten left standing by a door in the middle of the night, then he would have never been born.

If this, if that, if such and such. At the end of the day, if Vlad hadn't gotten shafted by Fate, Danny Phantom or Fenton would never exist. _But it didn't have to be that way did it?_ Danny thought determined to find a way out of this logical fate trap. _I mean, it's not like I want the guy to be happy or anything, he's evil…mostly. I just want him to not be **my** enemy. Maybe if I can just convince him to be good or something. No, no, no, that will never work. I mean it just doesn't work like that. **He** has to decide to be good, but maybe I can help convince him it's worthwhile?_ Danny paused and looked back over at the patiently waiting Clockwork, before starting to pace again. _Yeah sure by doing what? The only thing that could convince him is…_

Danny skidded to a stop, plopping out of the air and onto the stone bricked ground below. Clockwork sighed; he knew Danny had reached his decision. "Clockwork, I need to see one last thing." When Clockwork hummed expectantly Danny continued. "I need to see what made my mom show up at Vlad's doorstep."

Clockwork sighed heavily this time. "For what reason Phantom?"

"You're right; it doesn't matter why she showed up, just why she left." Clockwork began to refuse again, when Danny interrupted. "If I know what he did to mess it up, then I won't do it. If I don't destroy my own family,-"

"Then you can avoid your own horrible future. I am well aware of your reasoning Danny. I warn you, you are trifling with powerful matters." Clockwork left it at that, before waving his staff in front of his viewing screen again. It swirled back into life, before flickering onto the scene of a fierce verbal argument. Vlad and Maddie were bright red with anger, mere inches from each other's faces. Maddie pointed an angry finger in Vlad's direction, before taking a few steps back to glare more effectively at him.

Vlad darkened a few shades, before exploding back at her, gesturing wildly and quickly throwing an accusatory finger back at her. Undeterred by his anger, Maddie continued on with her line of thought. She placed her hands on her hips, and then pointed to a picture framed on an end table across the room. Vlad quickly stormed over to it, and flung it across the room. It slammed into a wall, and shattered with the force of his throw. Before it had even touched the ground, Vlad had whipped around towards Maddie yelling again. But she refused to back down, and dug her heels in as he stood inches over her glaring in anger. She took a deep breath and said something to Vlad, it was only then that Danny noticed there wasn't any sound.

"Hey listen, I know you probably have all of this memorized, what with this being your job and all, but um-"

Clockwork waved his staff once again, and sound boomed into existence.

"Apologize? _Apologize!_ Madeline have you lost your mind?" Vlad's voice angrily boomed forth.

"I think an apology is definitely in order. You were way out of line." Maddie pointed a finger at him to punctuate her point.

"Out of line?" Vlad screamed back, face turned several shades darker in angry response. "I refuse to apologize to that bumbling fat oaf, Maddie. If I have an ounce of pride left in my body, I never will! There's no force on earth, not even you" Vlad paused and threw a finger back at her, "could convince me to apologize to _him_."

"There was once a time you would have without a single thought. What happened between then and now?"

"What happened? What happened! Your husband's incompetence happened Maddie! Or did you forget the four years I spent huddled in a hospital bed, barely alive?" Vlad's voice was thunderous with rage at this point.

"He's apologized to you so many times for that, I've even lost count. He's your friend Vlad he's always been your friend." Maddie place her hands on her hips before pointing across the room. "And there's the proof of it, sitting right on your table." Without a second thought Vlad rushed over to the picture she had pointed towards and hurled it across the room. Maddie stifled a gasp; she had never seen him this angry before.

"My friend Madeline? NO! He hasn't been my friend since the day he crippled me through his own idiocy and waltzed away with the woman I loved. He hasn't been my friend since he had the nerve to court you in front of my very eyes, while I lay sick and damn near death in a hospital bed of his own making. My friend Maddie? If that's what friends are for I sure as fuck don't need enemies!" Vlad finished his angry tirade inches from Maddie's face, glaring down at her, daring her to continue to defend Jack Fenton.

Maddie let out a shaky breath before saying, "If you love me, then you'll do this one thing for me." Maddie's mouth was drawn in an angry line. "If you love me, more than you hate him, you can apologize. Could you do that, just for me?" Maddie's voice hitched higher at the end of the question, hopeful that this would be enough for him to let this go.

Vlad took a few steps back, completely blown away by the request. He looked like the wind had been knocked out of him, with her simple request having sucked all of the indignant anger from his body. He blinked as he began processing her question, and stared at his shoes for a moment. His immediate response, almost instinctual at this point was 'yes', because he'd truthfully, he thought, told her he'd do anything for her. But now that she was asking for something, so simple, but so hard for him, he didn't know if he could do it. All he had to do was apologize, and not because he wanted to, but because the love of his life had asked it of him. Vlad clenched his fists and sighed when he found his answer. Did he hate him that much? Or did he just love her that little. Vlad looked up back at Maddie and said,

"No." There was no waver in his voice, no weakness. His answer was final. The scene swirled out of existence and began up again at the beginning. This time Danny only watched it another time through, looking for the perfect time to intervene, or the perfect thing to say to convince Vlad to apologize. He frowned when no opportunity presented itself.

"So Danny Phantom, are you quite satisfied? You have much to learn from this." Clockwork intoned calmly.

"What are you talking about?" Danny muttered back distracted by his determination to convince Vlad to not make this mistake.

"The ability to forgive is a great one. Had you had it already in your possession, you would not be on my doorstep trying to 'borrow' one of my Time Medallions."

Danny's frown deepened as he took in Clockwork's words. "Me? Forgive Vlad? Yeah right! That Cheese Head is totally destroying my life!" Danny quickly replied back.

Clockwork only let a small smile grace his face before shaking his head in disbelief. _Only someone as bull-headed as him couldn't see his words reflected in the life of another._ Clockwork mulled over. "What is it that you want young Phantom?"

"A chance to fix my life."

"I believe I've already given you such a chance, have I not?" Clockwork countered.

"I mean, I chance to fix my life to how it should have been." Danny clarified.

"Explain yourself Danny, you are on treacherous territory."

"What I mean is, right now my family is missing an uncle. Maybe it doesn't have to be that way." Clockwork sighed deeply.

"And how is it, do you propose, that this uncle be gained?"

"All I have to do is convince Vlad to apologize to my dad, and wham! One big happy family." Danny beamed.

"And how do you suppose to do that? If your mother was unsuccessful, how do you think to succeed where even she failed?" Clockwork replied.

"Because…because I'm a very convincing person. Heck I convinced you to help me two times before, so I must be pretty good at this kind of thing right?" Danny answered hesitantly.

"Correct young Phantom." Clockwork moved from in front of the viewer, and back towards his bookcase. He paused in front of the rack with the Time Medallions, and lifted one from its resting place. Clockwork floated over to where Danny was standing and held out his hand.

Danny glowed with visible relief and reached for the Medallion, only to find his own hand grasped within Clockwork's. "Listen closely Danny Phantom, for the path you are about to chose is wrought with danger and pain, not all of which physical or your own, and none which avoidable. If you chose to take this Medallion, the past and the future is in your hands. _You_ will shape it with how you chose to influence the decisions of others, as it will take you outside of the time stream once again. Phantom-Danny," Clockwork's steely mask fell slightly, some of his warm affection for Danny spilling through. "Be careful, and don't be afraid to put your trust in someone you now feel is undeserving of it. In someone whom you feel is the most unlikely person worthy of it in existence. Trust him. You'll find he will see you through more often than not."

Clockwork's mask slid back into place, and with a much sterner voice he continued. "Finally Phantom, know that whatever decisions you make that change the flow of time are your own. I will not step in and stop you from making them, and you will be left with the consequences, the _full_ consequences, of your actions this time. If you do something that threatens the balance of reality itself, I will have no choice as Time's guardian but to destroy you to prevent your havoc from being wrought in the first place. Do you understand me?" Clockwork's eyes bore deeply into Danny's as he waited for a reply.

Danny's breath hitched at the gravity of Clockwork's question; did he really want to agree to something that might get him killed on accident? _I don't know everything that could happen if I mess with this one thing. Maybe I really shouldn't do this._ Just as he was having second thoughts about his decision, his cellphone buzzed. Surprisingly, the thing carried signals into the Ghost Zone. He could thank his techno-geek best friend for that little upgrade. He flipped it opened and read the text from his sister. Sure he was about to take a Time Medallion and he had a nearly all-powerful being waiting for his answer, but this text had to be important! Inside the text read, 'Danny, where r u! Mom and Dad worried and angry, g.b.h.s. Jazz' Danny growled angrily. He was late again, and as irrational as it was, he was sure it was all Vlad's fault somehow. He had made his decision.

"Yeah I understand completely." Danny ground out angrily.

Clockwork let the Medallion fall into Danny's hands and stepped away. "If only you truly did, young Phantom." Before Danny could argue back, Clockwork waved his staff, to silence him. "I have set the Medallion back with enough time for you to do your task. It will take you back before the incident; to give you time to speak with Vlad Masters. Use your time wisely, Phantom. You will not get another opportunity."

Danny nodded and response and slid his hands inside the cloth of the Medallion's necklace. Danny flashed Clockwork a brilliant smile before saying, "Don't look so solemn Clockwork; I'll be back before you know it!" And with that, Danny slipped the Time Medallion in place and disappeared.

Clockwork paced back to his seat before the viewer in silence. He fell back into the chair with surprising tiredness, and waved his staff a final time across the screen. In it, a fiery lab burned away with two men struggling inside the rubble. The screen flashed to a scene with Danny flying away at full speed; a regimen of white clad soldiers chasing after him. A third scene had him relaxing in a field of wild flowers, but in this scene he wasn't alone. Finally, a scene showed Danny hoisting the Time Medallion off of his frame, just about to disappear.

"All is as it should be." Clockwork stood from his spot in front of the viewing screen and started out of the room. He paused at the threshold and looked back into the room at the scene paused on his viewer. A small smile graced his lips as he said, "Good luck Danny."

* * *

He was falling, drifting, floating away. It was dark and cold, or maybe it was so hot it seemed cold again. He didn't know how long he had been falling, just that it was long enough to get used to the spinning dropping sensation in his gut. Suddenly, there was something solid underneath him. He gripped his head, _so that's where the spinning's coming from_ he thought distantly. His head lolled to one side, and he was dimly aware that was where the dropping sensation kept coming from too. He lay still on the ground a few more minutes, trying to calm his alternatively pounding and spinning head.

A few deep breaths accomplished what minutes of stillness could not, and the world came into overly bright colorful relief. The boy sighed and stumbled his way back onto his feet. _A few minutes of walking should work the blood back into my legs._ He numbly staggered through vaguely familiar streets, each step making his gait more powerful and steady. He rounded a corner, and the last few hours came vividly back to him.

 _I'm not in ghost form, I'm in Amity Park, I visited Clockwork, and now there's a weird heaviness around my neck._ He glanced down at the pocket watch swinging to and fro with each of his footfalls, and smiled wanly. He had gotten what he wanted after all. Danny tucked the Medallion inside his clothes; it wouldn't do to have anyone see it. With new determination in his steps, Danny set out with his plan back in mind.

 _Ok. Clockwork said he'd sent me back with enough time to convince Vlad to not be an asshole, as if there was ever enough time for that._ Danny thought sardonically. _So all I have to do is find him or something, and I'll be able to talk to him. Simple right?_ Danny stopped sharply when he realized he hadn't thought this through all that well. That really wasn't unusual for him, but he had to be more careful than usual. This time one mistake could cost him the right to even exist.

He didn't want to be on his mentor's bad side. While Clockwork was more than willingly to help, him even being here proved it, he still had a duty to protect the time stream. _Whatever that means_. Danny thought with a roll of his eyes. He started back out towards his home. It was as good a place to as any. At least he was relatively sure Vlad would actually be around in the area. Unlike in the future, Vlad was a normal and welcome part of his parent's lives. The door to his house showed up faster than he expected, so much in fact, he nearly bumped right into the door from being lost in thought.

He had worked up a plan and a speech to get into the house, or at the very least, to get some information on where Vlad was. He must live in town; he apparently was there often enough. Danny took a deep breath to summon up his courage, and rapped on the door. Several loud bangs and a crash emanated from the other side of the door, and then it was abruptly thrown open. On the other side of the threshold stood a young Jack Fenton. _Other than the gray hair and a few winkles, dad looks exactly the same. Go figure._ Danny was broken out of his musings by the sound of someone clearing their throat. He blinked when he realized he had been staring blankly at the man in front of him and started talking to fill the expectant silence.

"Um hi! I'm looking for Vlad Masters. Is he around?" Danny tried to peek past his linebacker physiqued father, only to have him block the view.

"You friends with Vladdy?"

"I uh yeah sorta. I met him earlier today and was hoping we could continue our conversation over dinner like he offered. Is he here?" Danny tried to pry out information again.

"No…" Jack ventured a response. "He's not here at the moment, but I can tell him you stopped by. What did you say your name was?"

"I didn't. It's um-" Danny searched around for a suitable pseudonym to hand over. "It's Daniel Moley." _Oh yeah brilliant Fenton, just combine the last names of your two best friends in the most awkward way ever._ Jack seemed to mull over the name in his head for a moment.

"I don't remember him mentioning any Moley's…"

"Uh that's because I used my adoptive father's last name." When Jack started at the admission, Danny continued. "I don't really like my new last name, so I only give it out when I have to. Like earlier today, since the conversation was really about a business deal for my father."

Jack took in the new information with a large grin. "Is that all? Vladdy getting into business, you know I always told him he had a natural talent for it." Jack barely left room for breath before bellowing, "Maddie! Set another seat at the table, we have a guest." Maddie called an affirmative back as Jack moved away from the door frame to let Danny pass inside.

"Hey kid, why don't you get comfy on the couch in the living room while we finish up dinner? V-man should be here any minute." Jack pointed over to a brand new couch in front of an analog television before heading back towards the kitchen.

Danny flopped down onto the couch trying to settle into his usual comfortable position. _Wow this is harder than I remember; guess it still needs to be worked in a little._ Danny mentally complained as he attempted to work himself deeper into the stiff cushions.

From just out of view, he could hear his mother humming a soft tune in the kitchen. Her voice was soothing, and his body from sore and tired from all of the various fights and scrapes of the week. _Even if the couch is stiff, it won't hurt to just close my eyes for a bit._ Danny reasoned vaguely as his eyes drifted close. A gentle hand on his shoulder brought him out of dream land. He opened his eyes and saw his young mother staring down at him. Her soft purple eyes shone with concern.

"Are you ok Daniel?" Maddie asked softly. Somewhere in Danny's misty thoughts, he wondered when his mother had learned his name. His mouth felt like it was full of cotton balls.

"Erm…What time is it?" Danny wondered sleepily.

"It's only 6pm; you got here about an hour ago. Dinner's ready if you're hungry." And with that, Maddie moved away from him, and back towards the kitchen.

Danny shook his head and looked down at his sleep wrinkled clothes. _Man. I was more tired than I thought. I shouldn't have gone to sleep._ Danny stretched his sore muscles and started towards the kitchen, when he heard the front door open. He turned around, and found the reason he was back in this time staring him down. Vlad had his hands full in the doorway, one arm full of bags, the other juggling the keys to the house.

He hadn't seen Danny yet, and it gave him a chance to take in his appearance. Gone were the frown lines and dark circles from too much work. Absent were the newly pressed business suit and expensive shoes. He was even missing the pony-tail, his hair cropped into a short cut that was slightly longer on the top than the sides. The cut actually reminded Danny of his, except for the bright silver color.

Vlad shifted the bags into his right arm after he had placed the house keys into his back pocket, and shut the door with his foot. He walked right past him and into the kitchen, the picture of distraction. Danny blinked at his retreat, frozen between wanting to follow him, and the strange sensation of seeing his arch-enemy so at ease and at home in _his_ home. "Maddie, sorry I'm late. I picked up a few things on the way over." Vlad set the bags down on the kitchen counter before turning to Jack. "And I made dessert as promised. It's your favorite." Vlad reached inside a paper sack on the counter to reveal a large container of home-made marble fudge.

"Awesome V-man! You always make the best fudge." Jack snapped up the container and began to pry open the lid, only to have Maddie smack the back of his hand with a kitchen spoon.

"None of that Jack, you'll spoil your appetite, and I worked hard on this reunion dinner. You can have all the fudge you want after you eat my stuffed pasta shells" Maddie hoisted the large casserole dish from off of the kitchen counter and onto the table. A soft keening noise came from near the table.

"And how could I forget about you?" Vlad cooed and bent over to pick something up from near the table. He lifted it high above his head, and Danny caught a glimpse of shockingly bright red hair. "How's my little peanut?" Vlad planted several loud kisses on the baby's cheek, before settling her in his arms.

"Oh I can't believe you call her that." Maddie replied with a smile.

"And why shouldn't I my dear? You ate enough peanut butter to be growing a peanut tree instead of a child." Vlad teased back. It was all just too much for Danny. _Peanut? Vlad and my mom getting along? Him making my dad fudge? What kind of freaky alternate dimension have I wandered into?_ Danny thought dizzily. He continued to gap in disbelief when Vlad turned around far enough to see him. At first they just stared at one another, each lost in mixture of disbelief and surprise. Then, slowly, Vlad handed over the small infant over to her father, and walked into the living room with Danny. "I'm sorry; I walked right past you without introducing myself." Vlad held out a hand, "Vlad Masters."

Danny stared at the offered hand; his brain was still several seconds behind the present. As if the hand had just materialized in front of him, Danny jumped back a few feet before catching himself and grasping the offered appendage. "Um, yeah Daniel Moley." Danny said meekly.

Vlad raised an eyebrow at Danny's impersonation of a startled deer, and said over his shoulder, "Jack I didn't know you had invited someone else over for dinner?"

"Me? No way Vladdie, he's your friend. He asked for you." Jack called back.

Vlad removed his hand from a stunned Danny's own, before fixing at icy stare on Danny. "I did no such-" Vlad abruptly ended his sentence and turned back to the kitchen. "Could you stay here for a moment Daniel?" It was more of a statement than a question, for Vlad was already half-way to the next room.

Danny gulped, Vlad hadn't been there five minutes and his entire cover story was blown. He could hear Vlad and his father talking about something in rapid hushed tones. He needed to think of something quick.

"What do you mean you didn't invite him over?" Jack whispered.

"I mean just what I said Jack. I didn't invite him over. I don't even know who that child is, I was hoping you did."

"But you _have_ to know him Vlad, he asked for you specifically. He must know you; he came over here asking for you."

"I'm telling you Jack," Vlad began again, more insistent, "I've never seen this boy in my life. For all I know he's some kind of con artist." Vlad frowned before glancing over his shoulder and back into the living room. Danny was standing staring at the ground.

"Con artist! Come on Vlad, he's a kid, maybe you met him and just don't remember?" Jack offered.

Vlad shook his head before continuing, "Not a chance Jack. Even if I had met him, why would I invite over someone whose name I can't even remember hearing before today?" Vlad crossed his arms and looked over his shoulder again. Danny was statue still. "How long has he been in here?"

"I-like an hour. He was waiting for you." Jack responded.

Vlad hummed in response and tapped his foot. His eyes looked far-off for a moment while he thought things through, before he suddenly pivoted on his heel and walked right towards Danny.

 _Uh-oh. Not enough time, and I know that walk._ Danny thought apprehensively.

"So Daniel, Jack tells me you were looking for me. Care to enlighten me as to the reason?" Vlad started blandly.

"Uh yeah. I can't believe you don't remember me. We met last Saturday. We were talking about business ventures and I must say Mr. Masters-"

"Yes that's very nice," Vlad interrupted, "but surely it wasn't your own business venture we were discussing young man."

Danny gulped; he had cut clean through his attempt at flattery. _This is very bad news._ Danny thought getting more nervous by the second. "No of course not! It was my father's. I'm sure you remember-"

"I'm afraid I do not. I have a lot on my mind now a days, perhaps you could remind me. What was your father's name again?" Vlad interrupted a second time. Danny's poorly crafted story was being shredded to pieces.

He rubbed his sweaty palms on the top of his jeans. "His name? Um-"

"Daniel why don't you stop this silly charade and tell me what is you really want? What were you hoping to do? Stay around long enough to get something valuable?"

"What no! I'm not a thief." Danny squeaked out defensively.

"And yet you have given me a false name, entered this house under false pretenses, and appeared out of thin air on the Fenton doorstep. What would you have me believe?" Vlad stared coldly into Danny's eyes, as if trying to distill the truth from his fear filled gaze. _Shit, this is not going at all as planned!_ Danny thought panicking more by the moment.

Danny swallowed through the growing lump in his throat, and looked back at his feet. He was as good as found out, and he'd been in this time less than two hours! "I, what I mean is, um…" Danny fumbled for any good excuse, and came up empty. He could feel the collective gazes of the adults in the room boring into him. Each set of eyes felt like a hot poker against his skin. Danny sighed shakily, the stress of the conversation was adding a hard weight to the tiredness and stress of this last week. He didn't have a choice; he decided to go with some truth. "I…don't really have a place to stay." He said quietly. He heard Vlad sigh loudly in front of him.

"Where are your parents Daniel?" Danny's eyes snapped up towards Vlad. His face had softened significantly. Danny was tempted to just spill everything out right then and there, only the weight of the hidden Medallion stopped him. _My parents are right in front of me, and they've never felt so far before._ Danny reflected ruefully.

"They, I- I can't go back please." Danny settled for a half-truth. He couldn't go back till he had completed the reason for being back here or all of this effort would be for nothing. Besides, he didn't even really know how to work that time Medallion.

Vlad closed the distance between them, and knelt down to Danny's level. "Why not Daniel?" He asked with surprising gentleness.

"They're dead." _Ok first full lie; let's see how he takes it._

Vlad frowned before saying, "Your father-"

"Adoptive father." Danny corrected immediately.

Vlad shook his head before continuing, "Why can't you go back to him?"

Danny just shrugged helplessly. He was at the limit of his lying ability, not like he was especially endowed to begin with. Hopefully the silence would fill in the blanks. Vlad reached out and grabbed his left arm, and Danny couldn't stifle a wince; Skulker had tossed him by that arm during their first fight that week.

Vlad's eyebrows nearly rose above his hairline in response before quickly removing his hand. Danny stood staring at the ground as Vlad moved away and grabbed the other adults in the room's attention. The three of them walked back into the kitchen, leaving Danny in silence.

Maddie rocked her child in her arms, and hummed to her softly.

The little girl was clearly exhausted.

Vlad shook his head, before leaning against the kitchen counter.

Maddie was the first to break the silence. "What are we are going to do about him?"

"I don't know Maddie, but he can't stay here." Jack replied.

"I don't see why not. Just for the night, it wouldn't hurt anything."

"Vlad he's obviously a run away. What we need to do is call the police, and have them take him home." Maddie frowned in thought. "I'm sure his father misses him."

"I honestly doubt that." Vlad replied with venom.

Maddie looked shocked before responding, "Why would you say something like that? Of course his guardian misses him. I don't know what I'd do if something happened and I couldn't find Jasmine." Maddie held the sleeping girl a little tighter at the thought.

"Yes well, you actually care. I'm not so sure about his father."

"Come on Vlad, kids run away. I'm sure it has nothing to do with his dad. You can't watch them all the time."

"Jack," Vlad started, "kids Daniel's age don't run away without a reason. And it sure isn't because mommy and daddy won't give them their own phone line."

"Come on Vlad-"

"And that doesn't explain all those bruises and scrapes I saw."

"Vlad he's a run away. He could have gotten into plenty of fights to get those." Maddie explained.

"Right, that's why he practically jumps out of his skin whenever one of us gets within ten feet. Or maybe why he won't give us his real last name? And when does a kid his size start fights?"

"Vlad-"

"Maddie it doesn't matter why he left, and I don't really care. No way someone his age up and leaves without a reason. And it's never a simple one either." Vlad crossed his arms, ready for an argument over this.

"Vlad he isn't staying here." Jack said sternly.

"Then he'll stay with me." Vlad supplied quickly. Jack looked ready to argue, before Vlad cut him off.

"Just for the night Jack, the boy's exhausted. Just look at him." Vlad pointed out of the kitchen and back towards the living room. Inside Danny was swaying on his feet, trying to pretend to not listen to the conversation about him in the next room.

Jack sighed, and shuffled his feet in a perfect replica of Danny at Clockwork's tower. "Well, alright Vlad. It is your place and all; I'm not going to stop you. We can talk this over more in the morning." Jack glanced back out at a swaying Danny. His head was bobbing, and he was no longer pretending to not listen. It was taking all his effort to stay awake at the moment, let alone eavesdrop.

Vlad smiled appreciatively at his old friend, before slapping his shoulder. "Thanks Jack, I'll get him over to my place." Vlad grabbed up his stuff, and began looking for his keys.

"Vlad." Maddie called. Vlad stopped wandering the kitchen and looked over at Maddie. She was holding his keys and a container of left over shells, Jasmine now securely in her father's arms. Vlad walked over to her with a smile, and grabbed both items from her hands.

"Thanks, Mads. I'll be back tomorrow so we can talk about what to do with Daniel." Vlad walked over and planted a kiss on sleeping Jasmine's forehead. "See you tomorrow peanut." Vlad and Jack managed a well balanced and shuffled hug, before he turned and left the kitchen. By the time Vlad came back into the living room, Danny looked to be doing a fine impersonation of a drunken sailor on the deck of a ship in a hurricane. "Daniel?" Vlad whispered.

Danny snapped out of his fatigue induced swaying and looked over at Vlad. "Come on, you're coming with me."

Danny blinked in response, his sleep addled brain needing a few extra seconds to catch up. His eyes widened when he understood the sentence. "Oh…OH! Oh thank you. I um-"

"Nevermind. Just come with me, and I'll get you a bed for the night alright?" Vlad offered as he walked right past Danny and towards the front door.

Danny shuffled behind him, his tired body hearing the words 'bed' and 'night' had him already heading for the door, when his brain caught up again. His arch-enemy was offering him a bed for the night, well away from the usual safety of his parent's home. _Maybe I'm not that sleepy_ Danny reflected numbly. He stopped on the threshold to the Fenton family home, not entirely willing to leave with Vlad of all people.

Vlad opened the door to an unassuming mid-sized sedan, and set the leftovers on the passenger seat next to him. He glanced back at the door when he realized Danny hadn't followed him. "Come on Daniel, we have to go." He smiled warmly, trying to encourage Danny to leave the house.

Danny wavered between the warmth of his family home, and the unknown inside Vlad's car. His every instinct screamed danger whenever and wherever Vlad was concerned, and the whole brigade of warning bells were going off now. He shuffled a little back away from the door. "I-I mean I don't mean to be rude, but can't I-" Danny stuttered.

"I'm afraid not Daniel. Maddie and Jack can't offer you room for the night." Vlad said with a small frown. "Now don't be so stubborn, I know you're tired." Vlad motioned to the car again, hoping to prompt Danny out of the house and down the stairs.

Danny for his part was still wavering with indecision. It hurt to have his parents basically throw him out, but he just didn't trust Vlad. _Still, I don't want to wear out his hospitality. I have nowhere else to go._ Danny thought forlornly. Just then Clockwork's advice came back to him. _Don't be afraid to put your trust in someone you now feel is undeserving of it. Trust him._ Clockwork had urged him. _Well I guess no time like the present._ Danny sighed, and plotted down the stairs and into the open car situated the leftovers container on his lap, and snapped his seatbelt in place. The car pulled smoothly away from Danny's family home, and he found the movement of the car soothing. It was getting harder to stay awake again. Danny was half expecting Vlad to immediately start in on the questions. To his relief, the cabin was soundless. Danny glanced over at Vlad with bleary eyes half way asleep already.

Vlad smiled from his spot in the driver's seat, and said, "Go on to sleep Daniel, I live over an hour away." Somewhere Danny's mind processed the information as he slid soothed by the movement of the car into a deep sleep.

* * *

 The car's sudden stop is what startled him awake. He was so tired, it still felt like the car was moving while his eyes told him for sure they were standing still. Danny leaned away from the car door just in enough time to avoid flopping out of the seat when it opened. Vlad stood on the other side shaking his head down at a clearly half awake Danny. "How about you do me a favor?" Vlad said while leaning down to unbuckle Danny from his seat.

Danny nodded dumbly in response, only half listening. "How about you hold that container for me while we head up the stairs?" Vlad asked.

"But why can't you hold it? It's your food." Danny argued back, never too tired to be contrary.

"Ah because," Vlad said while scooping Danny up without a second thought, "my hands are already full."

"Huh wah no! Put me down I can walk!" Danny protested loudly. He began to weakly struggle against Vlad's hold.

"Come on Daniel, you're dead on your feet, and my apartment is on the fifth floor." Vlad leaned over towards his ear before adding, "I swear I won't tell anyone alright?"

Danny gave another few weak struggles before settling back. _It's ok, just once. I mean who is he going to tell?_ Danny pondered slowly, before he recalled something else. This was Vlad he was dealing with. Even if he didn't tell anyone else, there's no way he wouldn't remember this, and he'd never live it down.

"I _said_ put me down!" Danny punctuated his command with a sharp elbow to Vlad's ribs.

Vlad yelped, mostly out of surprise, and nearly dropped Danny on his backside. "Daniel, what in the world-"

"Just put me down goddamn it. I'm not a child!" Danny spat angrily at him.

Vlad quickly set Danny back onto his feet inside the building lobby, but didn't let go until he was sure Danny could stand on his own. "Alright Daniel, there." Vlad ran a hand through the longer section of his hair, sweeping it away from his face. He shook his head and headed for the stairs. "Stubborn little badger." Vlad muttered while rounding the first flight of stairs.

Danny, who wasn't far behind, glared up the stairs at him in response. "What did you just call me?" Danny hissed out.

Vlad raised an eyebrow before stopping at the next landing to answer. "I called you a little badger and you certainly act like one. Stubborn, absurdly willful and temperamental, and sort of violent. Have you ever met a badger? You'd make good friends with them Daniel." Vlad shrugged and started back up the stairs when Danny caught up.

Danny sulked in silence as he clomped up the stairs. His everything burned. _I really should have taken Vlad's offer._ Danny thought regretting his earlier nasty behavior. Danny ran into Vlad's back when he stopped in front of an apartment door. Danny rubbed his sore noise, silently adding it to the running list of things that hurt.

Vlad reached into his pocket and slid his key into the lock. With a twist and a turn of the lock, the door creaked open. Vlad stepped aside, and gestured for Danny to enter first.

Danny gladly took the offer, making a beeline for a couch right near the entrance. He fell down more than sat, even more tired from what should have been an easy trip upstairs. Danny looked over at the clock. It was only 8pm, and he felt like he'd just run Heartbreak Hill of the Boston Marathon. Danny's eyes traveled over to where Vlad was setting the leftovers into his fridge. He could see the bathroom from where he was sitting and a hallway must have led off into the bedroom in the back. All and all, it was small, but nice enough.

Vlad sat next to Danny on the couch.

Danny sighed, he hadn't been acting nice to him at all, and Vlad was the one letting him stay. "Listen, I'm sorry for earlier." Danny voiced what had been on his mind for a few minutes.

"For what Daniel?" Vlad handed over a stack of towels to Danny.

Danny looked shocked to see them appear in his lap. He looked over at Vlad and said, "For hitting you. And for lying earlier, that was wrong too. I feel bad about it, but I didn't know what else to do."

"It's alright Daniel I know you didn't mean it." Vlad ruffled Danny's hair good-naturedly before shooing him towards the bathroom with an order to wash up for the night. Danny was too tired to argue about a bath, and happily complied. A quarter hour later found Danny awkwardly dressed on some of Vlad's old clothes and once again droopy eyed. "Now Daniel the bed is that direction." Vlad said while pointing down the hallway where Danny had guessed the room lay.

"Bu-"

"Don't you dare argue with me. Now the mattress isn't the softest in the world, but it's much better than this couch, and you need the rest." Vlad quickly shushed Danny objections, and shuffled him towards the bedroom in the back.

Danny settled bonelessly into the lumpy mattress with a sigh, and looked over toward the door. "Now if you need anything, I'm right out front alright?" Vlad reassured with a small smile before flicking off the lights. Even if he was being sent to bed before 9pm like a kid, Danny had to admit he was too drained to argue it. Danny shifted on the bad old mattress and felt the Medallion move with him. _Stupid Medallion. Just what in the hell have I gotten myself into? Well, maybe this adventure will go better than the last two._ Danny silently prayed before drifting off into a peaceful sleep.

**…then the past may be what you seek.**


	3. If You Speak to the Devil…

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny gets to know Vlad better and finds a place to stay.

The morning sun shone in through the eastern facing window, bright and wholly unwelcome. The near paper thin curtains did little to block its rays, insisting that all those under its gaze wake and greet the day. Danny groaned and rolled away from the white light while throwing the covers over his head. He wasn’t sure what time it was, but whatever time it was, it _wasn’t_ time to wake up. The light was greatly dimmed under the sheets, and Danny was about to give into the warm darkness of sleep when something felt off to him. He shifted again under the bedding and felt something move with him.

Curious as to what was hanging from his neck, Danny sat up in bed, and fully opened his eyes for the first time that day. The sight that greeted him was most unlike anything he expected. Unfamiliar walls, windows, and bed sheets met his gaze, and for a few terrifying moments; Danny was unsure of where he was. Now more than awake with the icy panic running through his veins, he threw off the covers and bolted upright next to the mattress. He panted with rising terror as the room crystallized into view. _This isn’t my room._  
  
Danny noticed with horror. He swiveled around for the door, and upon finding it, bolted right out of the room. He was about to run clear out of the apartment, when a voice got his attention. “So you’re awake are you?” Danny skidded to a halt in the middle of the living room; the sound of another person snapping him out of his sleep dazed panic. He turned around towards where the voice had originated and gapped in shock. Vlad was in the kitchen, loose sweat pants and wife beater on, pushing something around with a spatula.  
  
“I…uh…yeah.” Danny slowly replied, turning over the sight of Vlad in something so casual in his head.

“Not a morning person, hm?” Vlad inquired.

Danny grimaced as the light from the living room window hit his face. He retreated from the light, and settled with his back to the window on the couch. “What would give you that idea? And why don’t you own any freaking curtains?” Danny complained. His head was pounding, and worse the sudden rush from the bedroom had woken up his very sore muscles. He silently thanked the fact he was half-ghost. _Even though I got these injuries because of all the fighting I do, at least I heal fast._  
  
“Window treatments,” Vlad said interrupting Danny’s thoughts, “drapery, are expensive. Besides, I’m an early riser, beat the sun up most days.” He paused to flip something over in the frying pan on the stove top. “So it’s not like I need them, plus this is the fifth floor, so it’s not like I have people peeping in either.”  
  
“Oh yeah? Well what about thieves?” Danny retorted.

Vlad scoffed before saying, “To steal what? If you haven’t noticed Daniel, I don’t even own a television.”

Danny rubbed the sleep from his eyes, and began glancing around the room. In the bright morning light, he noticed several things he had missed the night before. While the furnishings were stylish, they were Spartan. The bare emptiness of the room was in stark contrast to the opulent mansion Danny was used to associating with Vlad.

“I hope you like pancakes.” Vlad said while setting a plate full of them in front of Danny on the table.

 Danny smiled down at the pancakes, scrambled eggs, and sausage links. He didn’t really have time for a hot breakfast at home very often, so this was a real treat.  
  
“I love pancakes. You have any syrup?” Danny said while plunging whole-heartedly into the eggs.  
  
“Yeah I’ll bring it over in a sec. What do you want to drink?” Vlad called back from the kitchen.

Danny muttered orange voice through a mouth full of food, and before long Vlad had come back with a glass full of the stuff and maple syrup. Vlad walked back over into the kitchen to start making his own breakfast.  
  
“So Daniel, after we finish up breakfast, we’re heading back over to the Fenton’s.” Vlad mentioned casually. Danny took a gulp of orange juice before replying,  
  
“What for?”  
  
“To discuss where you’re going to be staying.” Vlad moved back into the living room, plate in hand.  
  
“It’s only about 8am now, but it takes an hour and a half to get into Amity Park from here, so it’ll be mid-morning by the time we get to Fentonworks.” He sat down next to Danny and grabbed the maple syrup off the table. Vlad looked back at Danny to find him frozen mid-bite. “What?” He prompted.  
  
“Nothing! Oh well, yeah I guess it is something.” Danny rubbed the back of his neck before continuing.  
  
“I thought I was staying with you?” Danny ventured gingerly.  
  
“Yes I did say that, but only for the night. There really isn’t enough room for you to stay permanently, my apartment isn’t that big.” Vlad explain.  
  
“Oh yeah, there is only one bedroom, but I could sleep on the couch.”  
  
“Don’t worry about it Daniel, I’m sure we’ll think of something. Now each your breakfast before it gets cold. Jack is making lunch, and I can promise you’ll see toxic waste more edible.” Danny couldn’t help but smile when he remembered just why his dad was banned from the kitchen.  
  
“Yeah he’s not the best cook in the world.”  
  
“So you know the Fentons then?” Vlad quickly honed in on Danny’s admission.  
  
“Oh uh, no not really.”  
  
“Funny, you sounded as if you did. Which reminds me, how do you know my name?” Vlad picked up their empty plates and head for the kitchen.  
  
“Uh, phone book.” Danny said dismissively.  
  
“Oh you’re a horrible liar little badger.” Danny narrowed his eyes at the nickname.  
  
“Stop calling me that.” He ordered.  
  
“Want to change the subject? Alright then, how about your last name?” Vlad set the now clean dishes back into the cabinetry above the stove and turned to look at Danny. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the counter, the picture of calm expectancy. Danny for his part, picked at imaginary lint on the couch. _Small or not, this place is immaculate. So much like Vlad._ Danny mused and rubbed some more faux debris from his borrowed sleepwear. He chanced a glance back up at Vlad, and found him waiting patiently with a raised eyebrow.  
  
“I um, geez this sounds rude, but I can’t-”  
  
“I promise, I won’t take you anywhere you don’t want to go, but you have to give me something to work with here. I mean, I basically let a perfect stranger stay in my home last night.” Danny looked away and rubbed his pants some more. He really wanted to tell him something, but there wasn’t anything Danny could think of that wouldn’t jeopardize his mission. _Come on Fenton, you have to throw him some kind of bone, or you could be in serious trouble._ Confronted with Danny’s continued silence, Vlad walked over to the couch where Danny was sitting. He dropped beside Danny and ruffled his hair with a sigh.  
  
“Ok Daniel, if you can’t talk about your family, then what about your friends?” Vlad probed. Danny perked up upon hearing an opening to talk about something in his life, that wouldn’t bring more trouble for him later.  
  
“Well I have two best friends.” Danny started. Vlad ‘hm’ed in response and walked towards the back bedroom. Danny paced along after him when Vlad motioned for him to follow.  
  
“And what are they like?” Vlad prompted while rifling through his closet.  
  
“Well ones a techno-geek, in every sense of the word. He loves computers, electrical engineering kinda stuff.”  
  
“I suppose the Intels and Macs can be rather interesting but it’s not my cup of tea. Here,” Vlad said, handing over a pair of jeans.  
  
“A what?” Danny scrunched his eyebrows at the unfamiliar computer name. He took the pants Vlad offered and held them up to his waist. “These are way too big…” He noticed with concern.  
  
“That’s what belts are for.” Vlad responded while handing over the mentioned item. “And a Intel. You know the latest in computer software? I guess you and your best friend…” Vlad trailed off leaving Danny to fill in the blank.  
  
“Tucker” Danny supplied.  
  
“Tucker, don’t have a love for computers in common.” Vlad turned back into the closet and came back with a polo shirt. He tossed it Danny’s way and began going through the closet for his own outfit. Danny rearranged the clothing in his hands before continuing,  
  
“Oh no. He’s the technology lover not me.”  
  
“And what is it that you love?” Vlad inquired. He reached in and picked out his own belt before tossing the chosen clothing on the bed. Danny broke out into a full grin.  
  
“Space! The stars, everything about it.”  
  
“Want to be an astronomer do you?”  
  
“No an astronaut.” Danny beamed proudly. He watched as Vlad stripped out of his wife beater and picked up his own polo shirt. Vlad slipped the shirt over his head, and noticed Danny’s staring.  
  
“What?”  
  
“Oh well, you wouldn’t have somewhere I could change do you?” Danny shuffled his feet in embarrassment. As nice as Vlad was being, there was no way he was changing clothes in the same room as him. Vlad pointed down the hall.  
  
“The bathroom’s small, but” Vlad paused to give Danny a once over, “then again so are you. There should be enough room for you to change in there.” Danny narrowed his eyes in angry embarrassment. Vlad let out a short hearty laugh in response. “Oh don’t look like that Daniel, I’m just teasing. I was 14 once too you know.”  
  
“Yeah who would have thought?” Danny muttered as he stalked out of the room and down the hall to the only bathroom. Danny quickly closed the door behind him and set the clothes on the sink basin. A little careful maneuvering later, had him dressed and ready to leave, but Danny wasn’t moving just yet. He was carefully turning over the last few minutes of conversation in his head, and was surprised by his candidness. _Get a grip; this is **Vlad**_ _we are talking about. What’s wrong with you?_ Danny thought in dismay.  
  
_You spend five minutes alone with him being nice, and you are spilling your guts. Why in the world are you talking about your dreams with this guy? He doesn’t care; Vlad doesn’t care about anything, except marrying my mom and molding me into his perfect puppet slave. He always has an ulterior motive; he’s never nice to be nice. I need to focus. No more wandering conversations, no chummy shit. Just the bare basics of courtesy. Anything else and he’ll pump me for more information._ Danny finished his personal pep talk with a sigh. While he was sure he needed to avoid talking about his life as much as possible that was easier said than done. Without the usual bars of his personal worries and Vlad’s worrying obsessions, Danny was finding him alarmingly easy to talk to. A hollow knock and a disembodied voice reminded him of the time.  
  
“Yeah I’m coming out in a second.”  
  
“Hurry up then, I don’t think you’ll be seeing any girls your age, so stop primping.” Vlad’s teasing voice carried through the thin faux wooden door with piercing clarity. Danny scowled at his reflection. _What in the world possessed me to think it would be hard to not speak with him?_ He wondered with building frustration, and turned the handle to the bathroom door. He stepped out to find Vlad already standing by the door, near the shoe rack, keys in hand. Danny drug he’s feet across the floor to dissipate some of his building anxiety about being stuck in a car with Vlad for over an hour. Vlad rolled his eyes, and opened the front door.  
  
“Back to sulking like a toddler I see?”  
  
“Why don’t you just shut up and go downstairs.” Danny snipped back. Vlad closed the door behind him and slid the lock into place.  
  
“Alright I get it; you don’t like being teased about your appearance. I won’t do it again.” Vlad promised.  
  
“No that’s not it. I don’t like being teased at all.” Danny was still slightly sour about the ‘primping’ comment, and being who he was, he wasn’t about to let it go. Vlad hummed in response as they both rounded the last set of stairs and walked into the main lobby.  
  
“But how can I resist? You make it all too easy to rile you up.” Vlad observed with humor. Danny chose not to respond this time, and quietly followed Vlad out the lobby door. They walked in silence to parking lot, and it was only after they were both seated in the car that Vlad spook up again. “It’s a bit of a drive into Amity, so try and get some sleep if you are still tired, you aren’t going to be getting any the rest of the day I’m sure.” Vlad began pulling out of the parking space before admonishing, “And put on your seat belt.” Danny huffed in response.  
  
“I was getting to that. You don’t have to treat me like a kid.” Vlad quirked his lips into a slight frown at Danny’s attitude.  
  
“You know these sudden hostile mood swings are getting annoying. Why don’t you try to be positive for once?”  
  
“I am positive.” Vlad glanced over at Danny in suspicion. “Positively sure I’m not a child.”  
  
“I never said you were Daniel, but your tantrums and pouting aren’t doing you any favors in that category.” Danny turned and glared out the window. He couldn’t tell him being around him was what was ruining his mood. A few tense minutes passed in uncomfortable silence before Danny tried to start conversation up.  
  
“Why do you live so far outside of Amity?” Danny turned back around towards Vlad, waiting for his response.  
  
“I don’t see what’s wrong with where I live now. And why would I want to live close to Amity in the first place?” Vlad answered with a question of his own.  
  
“Well you’re at the Fenton’s a lot, I’d think you’d want to be closer.” Danny observed with a shrug.  
  
“Indeed I am, but I suppose the better question is, how do _you_ know that?” Vlad posed. Danny paused to grapple for something good to say, before responding,  
  
“You have a key to their house, and you seem really close to them. You must be there pretty often if you have a key.” Danny concluded after a few moments.  
  
“A fine observation Daniel, but if you notice they said it was a reunion dinner. If that’s the case, then why would you assume I was there often? People don’t cook special dinners for those whom are around often.” Vlad retorted.  
  
“Yeah, but you knew their daughter. _And_ your nickname for her is really specific. You’d have to have been around a lot to call her peanut because her mother ate a lot of them while pregnant. And if this was a reunion dinner, it must mean you were away for a while, but just recently came back.” Danny paused and frowned as he took in his conclusions. “What were you doing to keep you away from the people who you obviously are very close too?” Danny asked; thinking out loud. Vlad flicked on a turn signal and merged into the leftmost fast lane.  
  
“You know here you are prying into my life, and I don’t know much about yours. If I recall correctly, you were telling me about your best friends.” Danny opened his mouth to protest, but Vlad cut him off.  
  
“You only told me about one of your friends; what of the other one?” He asked. Danny scrunched his eyebrows in confusion at how quickly the conversation had gotten turned around on him. _Damn. I was sure he had dropped this. Where’d he learn to re-direct a conversation so easily?_ Danny thought with vague concern.  
  
“Well,” Danny started blandly, “she’s a Goth.” Vlad hummed to signal he was still listening while he passed a slower moving car on the road. The car honked in response, when Vlad cut in front of him on the road.  
  
“Yeah? Well screw you too asshole!” Vlad screamed at the still honking car as it flew past him and onto an off-ramp. “I’m sorry Daniel, you were saying?” Vlad looked over to find Danny staring at him in disbelief. He rolled his eyes before saying, “you can’t tell me you’ve never heard someone cuss. You did so last night.”  
  
“Yeah it’s not that, I just didn’t expect you too. I mean you didn’t when I smacked up in the ribs yesterday.” Danny explained. Danny silently pondered when Vlad had picked up his habit of cursing on sweets, before his thoughts were interrupted.    
  
“Yeah well,” Vlad started sourly, “I have a small case of road rage. Besides, that barely even hurt, you didn’t hit me that hard.” Danny declined to comment that he had been trying to hit him hard, and decided to focus back on the original topic.  
  
“Right, so my friend Sam, she’s a Goth and an Ultra-Recylovegetarian”  
  
“Daniel, what in the world does that mean?” Vlad interrupted.  
  
“Oh well, she wears all black, and doesn’t eat anything that ever had a face. Or something like that. It ends up meaning she likes to skulk in dark places and eat tofu wheatgrass for lunch.” Danny said with a chuckle.  
  
“That sounds interesting. I can’t even imagine what grass tastes like.”  
  
“Trust me dude, it’s nasty. But she’s an animal rights activist, and she’d never hurt an animal. She wears completely synthetic or plant based clothes made in ethically safe factories. She protests with PETA, she-why are you looking at me like that?” Danny shifted nervously under Vlad’s intense gaze. Vlad turned back to the road and changed lanes over to the far right to prepare to get off the highway.  
  
“Nothing Daniel, you just seem a lot more forthcoming than before.” When Danny didn’t respond, Vlad continued. “What I mean is, you have a lot more details to share about Sam than Tucker.”  
  
“That’s not true.” Danny hastily defended. “You just didn’t give me a chance to talk about Tucker. Tucker’s food tastes are in the exact opposite direction of Sam’s.” Danny said quickly changing subjects. Vlad hummed for him to continue. “He eats nothing _but_ meat. He calls himself a carnivore. He insists his all meat diet allows him to, like I don’t know, stay up 3 days straight working on computer projects. Or makes him think faster or something. Sam of course completely disagrees with him, and says meat is ‘ethically unconscionable’.” Vlad scoffed at the wording, interrupting Danny’s overcompensating rant.  
  
“What?” Danny asked now more annoyed with him.  
  
“Nothing that’s just an interesting phrase.” Vlad replied blandly.  
  
“Yeah well it’s her phrasing not mine.” Danny swiftly responded. “Besides I took my PSAT’s, plenty of interesting useless phrases to be found in there.”  
  
“My so defensive! I promise, I was implying nothing about your intelligence Daniel.” Vlad’s eyes sparkled as he teased Danny again. Danny _huhumpfed_ in response and he looked out the window. He didn’t recognize anything, and his near innate distrust of Vlad flared again. He wiggled uncomfortably in his seat.  
  
“How close are we to Amity?” He inquired in what he hoped was a calm voice.  
  
“Another 45 minutes I’m afraid. After that it’ll probably be another 20 minutes or so until we’ll be at the Fentons.” Vlad coolly replied.  
  
“Oh.” Danny said dejectedly.  
  
“Bored already Daniel?” Vlad asked good-naturedly. When Danny didn’t respond, he poked him in the arm. “Come on don’t clam up on me now. You were about to tell me about Tucker’s patented meat diet, or something like that.” Danny shifted away from the annoying jab, and looked back out the window. Vlad sighed after a few more minutes passed in silence. “You know I’ve known pregnant women less temperamental than you little badger.” Vlad said hoping to work Danny back up. It worked nearly instantly.  
  
“Yeah well, they don’t have deal with half of what I do.” Danny groused.  
  
“Well why don’t you tell me about it?” Vlad posed, hoping to draw him into conversation.  
  
“I don’t want to talk about it.”  
  
“I noticed.” Vlad said with a laugh. Danny practically growled in response,  
  
“Well do me a favor and not be so observant. I’m not your personal entertainment.”  
  
“Daniel, do you try to be this hostile to others, or is it just a natural personality trait? I’m not going to hurt you.” Vlad assured. Danny was less than convinced. After everything Vlad had done to him in the future, he couldn’t believe it. Danny huffed before responding,  
  
“Yeah well I don’t believe that.”  
  
“If I was going to hurt you, I’ve had plenty of opportunity to do so.” Vlad reasoned.  
  
“Maybe so, but everyone hurts other people, even without meaning to.”  
  
“Like your adoptive father perhaps.” Danny started at the sudden change in conversation topics. He had forgotten all about how he had led Vlad and his parents to believe he was getting beaten by some nebulous adoptive father. _Not like I don’t get beat up regularly in any case._ Danny settled for an even deeper frown and turning even further towards the door. “Alright.” Vlad said at length. “I get it; you don’t want to talk about him either. Well what do you want to talk about? We have at least another half an hour to go, and the quiet bugs me.” Danny shrugged his shoulders helplessly.  
  
“I have no clue. How about you tell me about your life?” Vlad hummed in thought for a moment before nodding his head.  
  
“I suppose I can tell you a little more about myself. Maybe then you’ll stop being so secretive.”  
  
“Fat chance.” Danny said with a smile, his mood improving with the shift of the conversation off his life. Vlad started by filling in some of his childhood. A few minutes later, he had moved all the way up to his college life.  
  
“I met Jack Fenton freshman year. It was an intro-biology class; I was a Biochemical major at the time, so it was my favorite class that semester. Jack was interested in ghost hunting, has been since the moment I met him. He blabbered on about it every minute he could spare to anyone who would listen. I found the proposition of ghost biology incredibly intriguing, and he had plenty of theories to go around. We became best friends quickly after that.” Vlad paused as they passed the welcome sign to Amity Park. Danny had noticed it too, and felt instantly better knowing they were back in his home town. “In any case,” Vlad started again, “I changed majors soon after meeting him to Spectral Biology.”  
  
“They have that major?” Danny asked surprised.  
  
“Of course not. But they do let you create your own major by working with a school consoler. He wasn’t too keen on my major suggestion, but I won him over with my insistence. It took quite a bit of effort, but I made it work.”  
  
“So when did you met Maddie?” Danny felt himself getting more excited as they neared his section of town.  
  
“I-Oh what the hell?” Vlad cried out.

Danny’s attention suddenly snapped back to the road. There was traffic backed up for miles. All around them were party goers and floats. The floats were crafted into the shape of deer and elk, and several of the celebrators had antlers on their head. “What’s going on?” Danny looked around from left to right taking in the spectacle.

Vlad drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. The town was small, and there really wasn’t any other way to get to Fentonworks from here. They were stuck some kind of deer themed parade. That’s when something hit him.  
  
“Deer fest.” Vlad hissed out in aggravation.  
  
“What?”  
  
“Jack was telling me about this. It happens around this time of year. I can’t believe these people have nothing better to do. What? Are they so bored in this little bumfuck town that they have to celebrate _deer_?” Vlad slammed his hand into the top of the steering wheel in frustration. Danny looked back over at Vlad in curiosity. He noticed Danny’s stare and supplied,  
“There’s no going around it little badger. There’s a dearth of proper roads in this stupid hick town. This is the only way to Fentonworks.” After Vlad had finished Danny glanced back up at the miles of parade floats and happily dancing spectators.

Suddenly sharing Vlad’s frustration, Danny was tempted hit something as well. _Great now I’m stuck in the car even **longer** with Vlad. Does Fate hate me or something?_ Danny thought irately. Vlad suddenly sighed from the seat next to him. Danny looked over right before Vlad said,  
  
“Get some rest Daniel; this is going to take at least an hour now.” Vlad said before complaining, “And I just filled up this tank.” Danny settled down into his seat a little farther to get more comfortable before he remembered something.  
  
“You were telling me about Maddie.” Danny prompted. Vlad shook his head before saying,  
  
“Later Daniel, I’m too frustrated to talk about her right now.” Danny shook off the dismissal, and settled in again.

 

* * *

Danny jolted when the car door next to him closed. He groggily noticed Vlad muttering something under his breath before moving towards the front door of a building. Danny shrugged his way out of his seat belt, and followed Vlad out of the car. His legs were still a little asleep from the long car ride, and his own nap, so he was slow climbing the steps. Vlad reached into his pocket and opened the front door after ringing the doorbell once, presumably as a warning to the house’s occupants. Vlad pushed the door open, and Danny trudged after him on still sleepy legs. “Sorry we’re late Jack.” Vlad said to someone right on the other side of the threshold.  
  
“It’s ok Vladdy. I figured you and Daniel had gotten stuck in that deer fest traffic.” Jack peered behind Vlad to glance at the more alert Danny.  
  
“Yeah we got stuck all right, all the last ten miles to Fentonworks. Would have been faster to park the car and walk.” Vlad griped as he walked over to the couch. He smiled down at a relaxing Maddie and Jasmine before taking a seat next to them. Jack quickly followed while Danny opted to stand. He had been sitting for too long already in that car, and he was going to enjoy the leg room.  
  
“Anyway, you both made it alright, so that’s what matters.” Maddie said while handing Jasmine over to her cooing ‘uncle’. Danny walked over to lean against one of the pieces of furniture in the living room opposite the rest of the family. He wasn’t looking forward to this conversation. It could only get awkward, and he wasn’t sure how well he was going to be able to keep up the lie he had crafted mostly by accident the night before.  
  
“Yeah well, we have other matters to discuss as well.” Vlad started while handing the happy infant in his arms back to her mother.  
  
“That’s true. We need to talk to Danny about where his dad is.”  
  
“That man is _not_ my dad.” Danny bit back. He decided to stick to the nasty over-sensitive approach he had been taking with the imaginary adoptive father subject.  
  
“Alright Daniel,” Vlad started with his hands raised in appeasement, “but we still need to talk about where you are going to be staying. If you don’t want-”  
  
“Can’t.” Danny corrected caustically.  
  
“ _Can’t_ , go back to him,” Vlad continued undeterred, “then you still are going to need somewhere to stay.” Danny shrugged before looking off towards the family den.  
  
“If I can’t stay with you,” he said while pointing to Vlad, “I’ll just do what I have been for the last few months.”  
  
“Which is?” Vlad asked with a raised eyebrow. Danny slid his shoulders up again before saying in what he hoped was a nonchalant voice, “sleeping in abandon buildings. It’s warm enough, and I don’t get bothered.”  
  
“That’s definitely not going to be happening young man.” Maddie stated in a voice almost exactly like she usually used to scold him for bad decisions. Danny scuffed his foot across the carpet before trying again.  
  
“Why not? I’m not bothering anyone, and it’s not that bad.”  
  
“That’s incredibly dangerous!” Maddie exclaimed in disapproval. “Is that where you got those bruises?” She questioned.  
  
“No. And I haven’t gotten into any fights either.” Danny lied.  
  
“Well then where did those marks come from, because you haven’t been home in months according to you.” Jack probed. Danny felt a jolt of panic go into his stomach and backtracked.  
  
“What I mean is, I haven’t lived there regularly in months. I’ve been back a couple times. I can’t seem to avoid the police, and they-or the people who call them- always keep dragging me back. He’s not too happy to see me usually, and this running away thing hasn’t worked out too great so far, but all of that is better than just giving up and living with his crazy ass again.” Danny crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at his mother. Maddie pursed her lips in response to Danny curt answer.  
  
“Well of course they sent you home, I’m sure your father’s looking for you.”  
  
“Yeah I bet he misses his personal slave a lot now that he actually has to take care of the house himself.”  
  
“Daniel, stop exaggerating!” Maddie scolded.  
  
“I’m not!” Danny blurted out. He balled his fists and tried to muster up some tears. Years of crying-on-demand practice in childhood aided him in his act. “I know you don’t believe me,” Danny started shakily, “but this man is evil. He has to be Satan; no way he’s a real human being. He doesn’t care about me at all; the only thing he cares about is the free maid service and the check from the fast food place I brought home.” Danny summoned up some extra sniffles and tears to top off the performance. Maddie seemed to be moved by his little act, and Danny silently thanked his personal inspiration, the Vlad back in his own time. _If I was actually thinking about my own father, this would be impossible. Thanks for actually coming in handy for once Vlad._ Danny thought gratefully, before staring back at the ground in front of his feet. The room was silent as the adults mouthed responses back and forth to each other they didn’t want Danny to hear. Danny glanced over at his parents, who seemed to be arguing vehemently with Vlad about something. Finally, Vlad shook his head and crossed his arms. He seemed to have dug in his heels about his decision. Jack sighed loudly before saying,  
  
“He really can’t stay with you Vlad. We have to tell the police.” Before Danny could even think to protest, Vlad had for him.  
  
“We will do no such thing. I refuse to be a party to someone who sends him back to his adoptive father.”  
  
“You’re being unreasonable Vlad.” Maddie replied. She leaned in, and whispered, “You don’t even know if he’s telling the truth.” Vlad narrowed his eyes in anger at her.  
  
“Yes I’m sure most teenagers can cry on a dime. Hey at this point, maybe he even gave himself those bruises and cuts.” Maddie poked Vlad in the chest before saying,  
  
“Vlad stop it! You know I didn’t mean it that way.”  
  
“Well how am I to know? If everything he says is so suspect then I’m sure we should question everything about his appearance as well.”  
  
“I, for one, think that he got those marks in fights from hanging around in abandoned buildings. Who knows who else frequents them?” Maddie countered.  
  
“No one Maddie! That’s why they are called ‘abandoned’.” Vlad sniped back angrily.  
  
“Both of you stop it.” Jack jumped into the argument. “We aren’t getting anywhere with you two fighting like that.”  
  
“Stay out of it!” They both harshly whispered back, before starting into each other again. Jack frowned. There really was no getting them to stop once they started like this. He knew from years of experience that the two of them could debate like no tomorrow about just about anything. _Hopefully they’ll wind themselves down before too long._ He thought before peering over at the forlorn looking teen currently sulking across the room. Jack didn’t want to put the boy out, but he really couldn’t afford to have him live there. Even if they did have the physical room, kids were expensive, and they were having enough trouble with their new daughter without worrying about a temperamental possibly abused teen on top of it. Moreover, there really wasn’t the room with Vlad, who did have the time and possibly money to help. Their only real option was to hand him over to child services and hope for the best. _Maybe with our testimony, and his repeated attempts at running away, they’ll believe the abuse allegations?_ Jack pondered. By then Maddie and Vlad’s “quiet disagreement” had escalated into one of their loud debates.  
  
“I’m telling you Maddie, I’m not going to allow you to chance putting him back with his foster father.” He tapped his foot loudly against the floor in pent up frustration.  
  
“Vlad you don’t even know this man’s name! How can you be so sure-”  
  
“I don’t need to know his name. I mean you haven’t told me your father’s name, but I’m sure from your descriptions that he’s a dick.”  
  
“My father has nothing to do with this,” Maddie replied angrily, “stay on topic.” Vlad leaned in closer with his hands crossed over his chest.  
  
“I’m sorry Maddie, I thought we were discussing being able to discern someone’s character without knowing their name. Unless you disagree with my assessment of your father’s nature?” Vlad quirked an eyebrow to further frustrate Maddie.  
  
“No of course not! But-”  
  
“Oh let me guess, ‘I’m trustworthy and Daniel’s not.’ ” Vlad interrupted. Maddie openly glared at Vlad in response. “Come now Maddie,” Vlad started in a condescending voice, “that’s been your objection the whole time. Not like it was hard for me to guess.”  
  
“Yes it has, and it’s a damn good one Vlad.” She shook her head and stood up from the couch. “Like it or not, we can’t trust him to tell the truth, and unless I think he is, we need to proceed as if he’s lying.”  
  
“Hey!” Danny interrupted the rebuttal Vlad had thought of. “I’m not a liar.” Danny pouted his bottom lip out and frowned deeply.  
  
“Maybe not about most things, but you can’t seem to be truthful about your family life Daniel, and that’s good enough for me.”  
  
“Now wait just a minute Maddie,” Vlad started, “he hasn’t lied to me about his family.”  
  
“How can you be so sure?” Jack questioned, jumping in.  
  
“He’s not.” Maddie cut off Vlad’s response. “How could he have a chance to lie to you, when you just let him weasel out of telling you anything?” Maddie placed her hands on her hips and stared down at Vlad still sitting on the couch.  
  
“Because then he has no reason to lie to me. Why would he when he only says what’s comfortable?” Vlad quickly countered.  
  
“Maybe so, but you don’t have any more concrete information than I do.”  
  
“Why do you both think the worst of this young man?” Vlad mused out loud.  
  
“Me? Oh no, I’m not in your little debate with Maddie. Not this time you two. You aren’t drawing me in.” Jack shifted his wriggling daughter into a more comfortable position before staring at the two of them. “This is truly going nowhere you two. Can’t we just call-”  
  
“Absolutely not!”  
  
“Of course we are Vlad! He’s not staying here.”  
  
“When in the world have I suggested otherwise.” Vlad replied.  
  
“And he isn’t staying with you either.” Maddie quickly added. Vlad practically snarled before jumping to his feet to glare down his nose at Maddie.  
  
“Stop being so difficult Madeline. The boy can stay with me until we can think of some other arrangement.”  
  
“There is another arrangement already. He can go with Child Protective Services.” Maddie argued back.  
  
“Absolutely not!” Vlad repeated.  
  
“Damn it Vlad, stop being so difficult, and listen.”  
  
“Hey for what it’s worth,” Danny interrupted again, “I agree with Vlad.”  
  
“You don’t get a vote.” The three adults said near simultaneously, before turning back to their conversation.  
  
“Wait a second!” Danny interrupted further, “it’s my life, why don’t I get to decide what happens with it?”  Maddie scoffed before turning to face Danny.  
  
“If you were any good at deciding what to do with your own life, you wouldn’t be in this position would you?” Danny shuffled his feet in response to his mother stinging rejoinder and settled back into silence. Vlad sighed and got her attention again.  
  
“At least give me a week Maddie. I’m sure I can come up with something suitable by then. He has work experience. He could get a job in town.” Vlad ventured. Maddie scrunched up her lips into a hard line.  
  
“No Vlad. What part of-”  
  
“Maddie,” Jack intervened gently, “that’s not such a bad idea.”  
  
“Jack we don’t even know how old he is.”  
  
“I’m nearly 15.” Danny happily supplied. Maddie hummed in thought before addressing him again.  
  
“And how does a nearly 15 year old already have job experience?” Maddie fixed a hard stare and Danny’s direction, which he easily answered.  
  
“It took a bit of convincing, but it was a fast food restaurant. It’s not like I was handling gold at the bank or something.” Danny tapped his foot in a show of impatience. They had been arguing in circles for hours, barely even asking his opinion on the matter. If there was one thing he hated, it was having someone make decisions for him, especially with him still in the room. Maddie didn’t look at all convinced, but Jack’s softening expression showed he was coming around.  
  
“Come on Mads, if he gets job, then he’ll at least have some cash to help out.” Jack handed his fussing daughter over to his wife. She walked towards the kitchen to grab a bottle. The room grew still as she turned over the thought of Danny staying and working in her head. It didn’t really sit well with her. While Maddie might have seemed harsh, she was really only looking out for Danny best interest _. Even if Daniel could stay with one of us, he’d have to work to help out because we don’t have the money to take care of him. If he worked near full time, he wouldn’t have time for school._ Maddie worried her bottom lip in indecision as she set the cold bottle in the microwave to heat up. By the time the buzzer for the device had gone off, she had made her decision.  
  
“ _If_ Daniel stays with you Vlad,” Maddie started while pulling the warm bottle from the microwave, “you had better make sure he goes to school.” Vlad looked shocked.  
  
“I can’t register him for the local school district. Even if I could fake my way into passing as a parent, I’d need documentation for him to register. Birth certificate, immunization records, transcripts, and more. I don’t even know the boy’s real last name, how am I supposed to-”  
  
“Well then you better home school him or something, because there’s no way I’m letting him just languish. If we don’t at least make sure he gets a high school education, then we might as well call CPS right now, because I’m sure they’ll see to it.” Maddie plopped the warmed bottle into Jasmine’s awaiting mouth, and waited for the rest of the room to respond.  
  
“I have no time for-”  
  
“Make time.” Maddie interrupted Vlad’s objections again. Truthfully, she was expecting this to make him see sense, and call CPS. _There’s no way he would agree to-_  
  
“Alright Madeline.” Vlad agreed. Maddie’s eyebrows shot up in shock.  
  
“You can’t be serious.”  
  
“If that’s what it takes, then so be it. It’s only temporary I’m sure, so a few weeks won’t bother me that much. Maybe since you are so concerned over his education, you could suggest a tutor if it goes on for longer than that?” Vlad walked over to where Danny was standing and leaned against the sofa piece in mimicry. Maddie’s eyebrows scrunched up in frustration when she realized her best objection had been shot down. She was about to start again, when Jasmine yawned in her arms. She looked over at the clock and seeing the time decided to drop it until after lunch.  
  
“Alright, it’s 2 in the afternoon now. How about we discuss the specifics after lunch?” Maddie handed the sleepy infant to her father with instructions to send her upstairs for an afternoon nap. Both of the males leaning against the couch nodded in agreement, and walked towards the kitchen. Vlad knew Maddie wasn’t one to give up so easily, they were probably going to be hashing this out all day, but at least he had a small concession on her end.

 

* * *

Vlad rubbed the back of his neck as he entered his car. He didn’t think it would have taken that long. _Who am I kidding? She’s the most stubborn person I know._ Vlad mused while sticking his key into the ignition. Danny sat beside him in tired silence. It was nearly 10pm, and they had a long ways to get back to his apartment. Even with the deer fest parade out of the way, his place was over an hour away, and he wasn’t feeling the drive back tonight. He knew if he sped, especially on the old deserted country roads off the highway, he could cut the trip time in half. He glanced over at Danny as he pulled away; he looked even more tired than he was. For some reason just being in the Fenton household seemed to take an emotional toll on him. _Interesting_ Vlad thought, as he decided to chance the ticket and sped the whole way home. It was late and dark, so it wasn’t likely he was going to be caught. He turned over his next idea carefully; he wanted to get more information out of Daniel without revealing too much, to what was honestly a near perfect stranger, himself. Danny rolled back towards his door right when Vlad had thought of an avenue.  
  
“Ok little badger, how about we make a deal?” Danny turned back towards Vlad at the sound of his voice.  
  
“What?” Danny muttered sleepily.  
  
“I’ll talk about Maddie, if you tell me more about your friends and school life tomorrow.” Danny thought  
over the bargain for a second before nodding in agreement. It wasn’t like he hadn’t promised to tell Vlad about those topics anyway, so he was getting a deal out of it. _Besides, I need him talking about my mom as a topic anyway, so I can convince him to apologize like she asks later._ Danny justified, before sitting further up in his seat.  
  
“I met Maddie my junior year in college. Jack and I were at some party for the science department, when we ran into her and her friend Harriet Chin. It was the middle of the summer semester, and the party was some get together, I don’t even remember what exactly it was about. I do remember what she was wearing to it though; hair spray and ripped t-shirts never looked so good. It didn’t take long after that for the three of us to become friends. Maddie was also interested in ghosts, but more the technological aspects of the trade. Only person I know who can build spectral transformative filter generators from scratch in a single day.” Danny rolled his eyes. It was the geekiest thing he’s heard since being away from Tucker. “We, the three of us, scheduled the same classes for the fall and spring semesters that year. She was even more impressive inside the classroom. I don’t think our professors knew half of what she was talking about. Heck she practically taught our spring semester dimensional stability and intersectionality class herself. She came up with the design for a…” Vlad trailed off and glanced over at Danny. Danny promptly snapped out of his bored daze and said,  
  
“Oh I swear I’m listening.” Danny slapped on a more attentive look and waited for Vlad to continue.  
  
“Like I was saying, she came up with a design for a portal to the theoretical dimension that ghosts inhabit. Well she did the theory work anyway. Jack came up with the design, but it was too esoteric. It took me some time to make it work in the practical realm, but with all of us working together we were able to make a prototype.” Vlad abruptly cut off his narrative and glared at the empty space in front of the steering wheel.  
  
“Um…what happened after that?” Danny prompted. He already knew the story well, but he didn’t need Vlad knowing that. Vlad’s glare grew a degree fiercer before he continued.  
  
“We tested it at the end of that spring semester, but things didn’t go as planned. We had an accident in the lab.” Vlad paused to swerve a little more aggressively than needed down another country back road.  
  
“What happened?” Danny inquired. Somewhere in the back of his mind he registered the slight increase in speed as Vlad pressed harder on the gas as if trying to outrun the past.  
  
“I ended up with spectral radiation poisoning. I was sick in the hospital until about a year ago now.” Danny noticed his careful avoidance of the specifics of his illness. _Yeah if I had ended up with acne that bad, I wouldn’t mention it either._ Danny thought. “But,” Vlad began interrupting Danny’s thoughts, “I’ve gotten a lot better. In fact, I’m completely cured.” Danny resisted the urge to say otherwise, the incident with Vlad’s ecto-acne reoccurring springing to mind.  
  
“In any case, now I have an apartment and a nice job in Pickinanny.”  
  
“Pickinanny is like 3 towns away from Amity.” Danny observed with surprise. “Why are you working so far away, when you drive into Amity all the time?”  
  
“There are no really good paying jobs in Amity, and besides I’m only there to visit the Fentons”  
  
“Yeah visit.” Danny said sarcastically. “That’s why you practically live there, with a key and all.”  
  
“Well if you must know, I did live in town until about 2 months back. I moved apartments to be closer to the new job in Pickinanny.” Vlad slowed down as he calmed and the conversation moved past the accident. Danny nearly jumped in surprise when he recognized Vlad’s apartment pulling into view.  
  
“How’d we get here so fast?” Danny pondered.  
  
“Well if you know what roads to take, and aren’t scared to break 90, you can get here pretty quickly.” Vlad chuckled when Danny’s face twisted in shock. “Don’t worry, I’m a great driver, you didn’t even notice how fast we were going did you?”  
  
“Why do you need such a high paying job anyway?” Danny opted to change the subject. While he did love speed, it was only when he was in control of it. The thought of Vlad zooming down a dark backstretch of road made him distinctly uncomfortable, ability to go intangible or not. Vlad closed and locked the car doors before answering.  
  
“Medical bills.” Vlad’s demeanor changed again, as he remembered the accident.  
  
“What?” Danny asked in confusion. Vlad shook his head as he held open the door to the apartment lobby.  
  
“Don’t worry about it Daniel. Anyway, it’s late, and you are going to have a lot of things to do in the morning.” Vlad swung open the door to the apartment, and then pointed towards the bathroom. “Why don’t you take a shower and head on to bed? We can talk more in the morning.” Danny was about to argue when a large yawn from his tired body cut him off. He didn’t like being sent to bed like a kid, but he really did need the rest. Danny nodded tiredly, and walked to the bedroom to grab some clothes before heading into the shower. A half an hour later, and Danny was settled back into the lumpy mattress for a good night’s rest. He had tried to offer to sleep on the couch that night, but Vlad wouldn’t hear it. Danny closed his eyes as Vlad flicked off the lights to the bedroom, and walked back into the front part of the apartment.  
  
After waiting a few extra minutes to makes sure Danny was actually asleep, Vlad slipped his shoes back on. He grabbed a heavy paper sack from underneath the sink, and grabbed his keys before exiting the apartment. He locked the door behind him. It was only going to be a quick trip, but he didn’t want to leave the apartment unlocked with Danny there. He headed towards the backside of the apartment instead of the lobby. Vlad checked the back hallway for any wayward occupants before opening a window and slipping onto the fire escape. He closed it behind him, and in a flash of paradoxically black light, jumped from the railing and into the sky.

 

* * *

He was late. While he had to admit, the upstart he’d found not six months back had his uses, he also had his failings. Like his chronic tardiness for example. While the kid always got whatever goods he asked for, and could even be counted on to deliver a meal or two, it’s like he couldn’t be assed to be on time. The kid said he had other obligations that he had to attend to first in order to keep serving him. _No matter_ the being thought coldly. _Just as long as he keeps his perfect deliver record, he’ll keep being useful._ A small speck grew on the horizon, as it sped towards his position. He was only 5 minutes late this night. The figure in the sky landed a few feet from his hiding position, and walked to a point directly in front of him. It always amazed the being how he could tell where he was, even when invisible. His associate held up a large paper sack.  
  
“I’ve gotten what you asked for.” He said while stepping under the light of a greatly dimmed street lap. To a human it wouldn’t be enough light to make out anything but his vague shape, but he wasn’t human. The being stepped out from the building’s shadow to join him.  
  
“Plasmius,” a nearly bass voice drawled, “how nice for you to finally join me.” Vlad sneered and threw the bag in the being’s direction.  
  
“I got what you wanted. Believe it or not, I do have other things to do with my time other than playing errand boy for you.” Vlad crossed his arms and leaned against the light pole, the picture of youthful cockiness.  
  
“Yes I suppose you do. But, if you took my offer-”  
  
“I thought I made it clear last time that I wasn’t interested?” Vlad rudely interrupted. The being hissed in anger, its form beginning to glow.  
  
“Don’t talk to me in that manner child. You should be grateful I’m even offering such a young ghost like you the opportunity.” The being, now glowing bright white, hissed. Vlad resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the being’s reprimand.  
  
“If you want me to keep handing over what you ask for, you’ll be mindful of your tone ghost.” Vlad narrowed his eyes. The ghost flared its energy in a show of dominance; its power easily dwarfing the amount Vlad was exuding.  
  
“And if you want to keep your core intact, you’ll be mindful of yours underling.” The ghost reached into the bag, and pulled out two coolers. A malevolent smile passed its night darkened face as it opened them to inspect the contents. It reached in and picked up two identical frosted glass tubes. Inside, something was glowing brightly. The combined glow was easily enough to illuminate the surrounding area. The ghost licked its lips in anticipation, before drawing a clawed finger over the seal to the glass container. It quickly cracked open under the combined onslaught of the ghost’s physical form and spectral energy. A small concentrated ball flickered into life outside of the glass, and hovered in the ghost’s pale porcelain hand. It throbbed like a heartbeat, floating with a quiet glow, before the ghost grasped it tightly. The glow slipping from between his fingers slowly faded out of existence as it was absorbed into the ghost’s body. The creature sighed as the energy settled into his body, and reached for the second glass container.  
  
“So my young associate,” the ghost started while breaking open the second seal, “I hear you are entertaining company.” Vlad’s reaction was immediate.  
  
“Stay the hell away from him.” He ordered sternly.  
  
“You aren’t the one who makes the orders young one, but I can see you are already attached to the human creature. I was only inquiring, if he makes such a good battery for you, then perhaps I could-”  
  
“The kid is none of _your_ concern damn it. He’s not your food source or your play thing, so get any ideas you have about him out of your head.” Vlad narrowed his currently glowing red eyes in the ghost’s direction. The ghost finished sucking in the second energy ball, before disappearing from sight. It quickly rematerialized behind Vlad and seized him by the throat. It jerked him up to his eye level.  
  
“Let me make something clear child. I can do whatever I please whenever I please it. I have the power here not you.” The ghost squeezed down harder on Vlad’s throat earning a hiss of pain from Vlad. “If I wanted that little toy of yours, I’d have his heart in my hands already, and there’d be nothing you could do to stop me.” The being punctuated his point by sapping some of the ghostly glow from around Vlad’s form. “You only have the power I allow my pet,” Vlad growled at the demeaning nickname before the creature continued, “So I’d watch that wayward tongue of yours.” And with that, the creature released him. Vlad landed solidly back on his feet and continued to level a nasty glare in the ghost’s direction. _He hasn’t been able to stand after I took that much energy before. How interesting._ The ghost noted.  
  
“You’d be wise to take my offer the next time we meet. I might run out of patience for your tardiness and arrogance.” It took a few steps back and threw the paper sack, with the glass containers inside, back at Vlad. “Here, take the vessels, and bring me two more cores next week. Staying in this world drains my energy more than usual, and I have yet to finish my business here.” Vlad grunted out an affirmative, and turned to fly away. “Oh and my pet?” The ghost stopped Vlad a few seconds before takeoff.  
  
“Yes?” Vlad ground out through his teeth.  
  
“Yes whom my pet?” the ghost prompted.  
  
“Yes…master. How may I serve you?” Vlad ground his molars in frustration. The ghost was power hungry and reveled in the humiliation of others, but he needed it contained.  
  
“If you ever talk back to me in defense of some human riff-raff again, I’ll rip your core out. Understand?” The ghost leveled an icy glare in Vlad’s direction while it waited for his response.  
  
“Completely.” He responded. The ghost made him wait a few seconds more, just to show him who controlled the situation, before nodding for him to leave.  
  
Vlad took to the sky, heading back in the direction of his apartment from the outskirts of the small town he lived in. _I hate that nasty creature. If only I could find a way to trap him, in the ghost zone, or anywhere else for that matter, then I wouldn’t have to deal with him anymore._ The truth was, even if he did have some way to trap him, he’d have to fight the energy hungry ghost first, and he wasn’t strong enough yet. He didn’t like killing low level ghosts and ripping out their cores to feed to that monster, but doing so meant it kept its nasty claws out of the human populace instead. Humans were easier prey, and disturbingly enough, the creature seem to prefer human energy over spectral. If killing a few ghosts stupid enough to wander into town was what it took to keep people safe, Vlad was willing to do so.  
  
At least long enough to buy him enough time to get strong enough to beat it. _I’m close. Almost there, his attack took much less out of me than I remember._ Vlad noted with growing excitement. He sighed as his apartment loamed into view. He phased through the roof of the building and headed straight into his apartment, still invisible. He glanced over at the clock, it was well after midnight, and he had to be at work in the morning by 7am. Vlad stretched and transformed back into his human self, before stalking tiredly over the couch. He threw the blanket over his form, still wearing the clothes from earlier that day, with a promise of an early morning shower.  
  
Outside the apartment, a pair of bright neon red eyes glowed with interest. _So little Plasmius, let’s see how much you like this new toy of yours._ The being the eyes belonged to thought, before disappearing into the warm night.  

**…Then make sure not to get too friendly.**

 


	4. If You Make Friends with the Devil…

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bonding, a fight, and a realization.

The next two days passed with few events and even less fanfare. Vlad disappeared well before sunrise every day, a note and some breakfast fit for reheating sitting in the dingy kitchen microwave, its grime the product of years of use more than lack of clean. Danny ate through breakfast then paced through the house bored out of his mind. Vlad had left some money for bus fare and a urging to go out and apply for jobs with it inside those notes of his.

Danny sternly ignored them both, entirely disinterested in getting a job in a place-a time- he wouldn’t be staying in long. He assuaged his boredom by attempting to rifle through Vlad’s old things the first afternoon. The resounding angry tirade about respect and privacy Vlad had given him afterwards wholly deterred him from further attempts the second afternoon.  
  
Though he wasn’t sure how Vlad knew he had touched anything. By the time Vlad had arrived home from work that second evening, Danny was practically begging for some form of entertainment. He found it by endeavoring to keep Vlad up till 3am the next morning, pestered with questions and suckered into children’s board and card games. The greatest shame of it all was Danny didn’t know he was leaving with Vlad on Wednesday morning. A little after the sun had risen to greet the day, Vlad shook Danny awake to meet his. “Good morning Daniel. I hope you slept well.” Vlad chirped bright as the morning sky.  
  
Danny grumbled something beneath the warmth of the bed sheets, and turned away from the sound intruding into his rest. He half snuggled, half burrowed, into the covers, content to sleep at least till midmorning. Vlad crossed over to his still sleeping form, and tugged the bed spread clean off of him.

With a gasp and a shiver, Danny sat bolt straight in bed, and blindingly groped for where the covers had disappeared to.  
  
Vlad rolled his eyes before saying, “Come on little badger. You may be nocturnal, but we have somewhere to be today.” He crossed his arms and stalked over to the bed when Danny pressed the pillow over his head and attempted to wrap what remained of the sheets around his form. Vlad began to reach out for the remaining sheets before opting to just take the pillow being co-opted into eye cover.  
  
“Come on damn! It’s got to be like 6am or something.” Danny protested while pulling on the pillow still in Vlad’s hand with a fierce tug.  
  
“No,” Vlad started holding firm against Danny’s pulling, “it is about 7:15. I told you to go to sleep last night, but you steadfastly ignored the suggestion.” When it looked like Danny was heading towards a large tug, Vlad let go and watched him flop back into the bed. “We have somewhere to be soon.” Vlad reiterated.  
  
Danny scowled and hugged the pillow to his chest. “But I’m exhausted, and I swore you said you weren’t working today.”  
  
Vlad intoned something in response before walking to the door, satisfied Danny was more than awake enough to avoid falling back asleep. “That’s right, I’m not working today, but that doesn’t mean I’m staying in.”  
  
“So why do I have to go with you?” Danny asked while sulking after Vlad, exhaustion reading in every line of his body.  
  
“You were the one complaining about staying in the house all day, despite my other more urgent suggestions that you go look for work. I thought you’d be excited about going out.” Vlad quirked an eyebrow when Danny flopped over onto the couch. _Truly? He acts like I’m leading him to the gallows._  
  
“I would be if I wasn’t so tired.” Danny sighed and leaned wearily onto his hands currently resting on his knees. “When did we get to sleep last night anyway?”  
  
“Sometime after 2:30 this morning. At the very least, you nodded off then.” Vlad supplied walking back into the bedroom. He tossed some clothes Danny’s way before continuing, “Now get dressed. We have a bit of a drive to get to it.”  
  
Danny scrunched up his face as he caught the clean clothes. “We had better be going to the mall. If you are waking me up before 10am, I had better be getting something out of it. More importantly, I’m sick of wearing your clothes.” Danny huffed.  
  
“Well if you hate them that much, I’m sure you can do without them.” Vlad teased.  
  
Danny grunted something back from inside the bathroom, stumbling around in the small space in his tired state. “And what else am I going to wear?” Danny asked as he strode out back into the living room.  
  
“I don’t know, perhaps your birthday suit since my clothes are so inadequate.” Vlad supplied.  
  
Danny crossed his arms as he crossed to the door. “You could at least tell me where we’re going. And why aren’t _you_ tired?” Danny asked jealous spite at Vlad’s apparently energy filled steps dripping off every word.  
  
“I’m used to it. I can’t say I get much sleep these days. Not to mention I’m not a sleep loving teenager anymore.” Vlad slid the key into the door and locked it before continuing, “And I’ll tell you in the car.”   
  
He brushed past Danny as they descended the stairs, more than a little pep in his step.  
  
“Whatever, we still only slept like four hours last night; you should be dragging your feet without coffee or Monster or something.” Danny retorted as he drug his tired legs through the open lobby door.  
  
Vlad only started humming a happy tune in reply as they made it to the car. After he had strapped into the driver seat, he turned to find Danny glaring angrily in his direction. “What,” he started incredulously, “I’m not allowed to be in a good mood?” He quickly backed the car out of the parking space and turned towards the highway.  
  
Danny wasn’t buying it. Caffeine free, four hours of sleep, humming peppiness isn’t normal. _Even for the Fruitloop._ Danny thought sardonically. He shifted in his seat as Vlad hummed louder, bobbing his head to the song stuck in it. _It’s too early for this shit._ Danny determined to either find a way to block out Vlad’s cheer, or make him just as miserable as he was. “So where are we going?” Danny’s question broke through the happy tune Vlad had going.  
  
“It’s a surprise.”  
  
“No. You said you’d tell me in the car. So get to talking instead of that racket you’re currently making.” Danny narrowed his eyes at Vlad in annoyance. He wasn’t being dragged out of the house this early to be driven around without knowing where. It just wasn’t happening.  
  
“Oh alright, honestly. You would think I was driving you to your execution the way you are acting.”  Vlad noted before changing lanes.  
  
Danny only scrunched his face into a frown and waited. “Yeah well I feel like I’m dying, so you might as well be.”  
  
“Since you are so interested,” Vlad began without addressing Danny’s complaints, “we are heading over to the Fenton’s.”  
  
“What the hell for? It couldn’t wait until this afternoon or something? I didn’t want to get out of the apartment to go over to their house.” Danny ranted, more than a little put off at the thought at being in the home that wasn’t currently his.  
  
“Firstly, because I said I would, and you need to do something other than pace around my apartment.”

Danny’s frown melded into a scowl. “I did something other than that.”  
  
“Yes, like rifle through my things.”  
  
“I already apologized for that you paranoid-”  
  
“Regardless,” Vlad interrupted, “You need to get out of the house. I was already heading over there, I have the only car, and you seem adverse to public transportation for some reason-”  
  
“I am not!” Danny protested immediately. He didn’t like the way Vlad was making him sound like a spoiled brat.  
  
Vlad rolled his eyes skyward before continuing, “Then what other reason do you have for not seeking employment like we discussed was a requirement for you staying?”  
  
Danny declined to answer, and just stared pointedly out his window.  
  
Vlad sighed and pulled onto the off-ramp. “In any case, I figured you’d like to come.”  
  
“You said ‘firstly’, what were the other reasons?” Danny wondered.  
  
Vlad smiled absently before responding. “They are my own, you nosey little badger.”  
  
“Well I think I’m owed them if I’m getting dragged along.” Danny fixed a pointed stare in Vlad’s direction. When Vlad didn’t respond, he tried increasing the angry and nasty factors behind it for greater effect.  
  
Vlad only chuckled. “If you keep looking like that, your face will get stuck, and how will you ever get a date with a face stuck like this?” Vlad question while demonstrating the look Danny was sending his way.  
  
Danny stuck out his tongue before saying, “I’m sure I’d still be doing better than you.”  
  
“Is that so? So that nice friend of yours, Samantha, is dating you then?”  
  
“What-n-no!” Danny stuttered. “Why would you even say something like that? I don’t like her!” Danny immediately denied into Vlad’s Cheshire-like smile.  
  
“Oh you have to be kidding. It’s so obvious; there might as well be a neon sign above your head. The way you talk about her, honestly, one would think you thought the sun and moon rose with her.”  
  
“Oh yeah? Well what about you?” Danny challenged. When Vlad only raised an eyebrow in response he drove forward, “You’re one to be talking about acting like the sun and moon rise with someone. You act like M-Maddie invented everything good in the universe, in between being the goddess of beauty or something.” He stumbled over his mother’s name; it was still weird calling her by her first name.  
  
Vlad’s eyebrows flew towards his hairline. “I do no such thing.” He denied calmly.  
  
“Oh, you’re such an awful liar Cheese Head.” Danny threw Vlad’s words back at him from earlier that week. He had learned that Vlad already loved the Packers when he snuck through his stuff yesterday.  
  
Vlad huffed in amusement. “Is it really that obvious?” He gave Danny a sidelong glance before turning his attention back to the road.  
  
“Well I don’t know. You spent all last night talking about her, in between kicking my butt at card games. You play a mean game of poker by the way.” Danny relaxed further into his seat, and fiddled with the radio. There was nothing he considered good on, reminding him that he was still stuck in the past.  
  
“Oh, you’re not half bad. A little practice and you’ll be fine.” Vlad didn’t reply to the comment about him talking about Maddie all night, so Danny decided to be more forward.  
  
“You like her don’t you?” He asked with a grin. It really wasn’t playing fair; he already knew the answer from the future. Still, if he had any hope of getting out of here, plan enacted, he needed to cozy up to Vlad some more.  
  
“Perhaps I do.” Vlad hazarded with a small distracted smile. “But maybe I’m like you, and don’t like her the way you don’t like Samantha.”  
  
“I don’t like her.” Danny said flatly.  
  
“I know you don’t.” Vlad suppressed a laugh when Danny pouted in his direction. He shrugged when Danny’s pouting turned up a few notches. “I can’t really say. I mean if you don’t like Samantha, then who’s to say I like Maddie?”  
  
“You, whenever you tell me about how smart, and pretty, and focused, and talented, and-”  
  
“Alright I get it. I’ll make you a deal.” Vlad looked over at Danny to see if he was interested. When it looked like he had Danny’s interested peaked, Vlad started again. “I’ll tell you the truth, if you do too.” 

Danny looked about ready to protest, when Vlad interrupted. “Later tonight, on the ride back. How about it little badger?”  
  
Danny thought it through. He wasn’t about to have some kind of “sharing is caring” with Vlad later tonight; bonding with the Fruitloop wasn’t part of the plan. On the other hand, he was sure Vlad could redirect and deny his way out of the conversation much better than he could. And bonding, as much as he hated to admit it, worked to his advantage. Danny nodded in agreement, his mind made up. _I can always weasel my way out of it later._ Danny thought, entirely sure he’d think of some way to avoid admitting he had feelings for anyone.  
  
“I love Maddie more than I can say or explain. I’ll avoid poetry, but I can promise you sometimes I feel like I could live on her smiles and laughter by itself.”  
  
“Is that why you are in such a good mood today?” Danny pried.  
  
Vlad nodded. “Yeah, Jack’s off selling their inventions to whoever will listen. He’s a pretty good pitchman about their stuff. It’s how they make most of their money. In any case, I’ll have her and Jasmine to myself this afternoon.”  
  
“So,” Danny said at length, “you do know she’s married right?”  
  
“What! It’s not possible. It can’t be true!” Vlad said in a mock impression of Luke Skywalker hearing Vader claim to be his father. He rolled his eyes at Danny’s question. “Of course I do Daniel. I got the wedding invitation and everything.”  
  
“And what, you just don’t care?”  
  
Vlad sighed and scrubbed a hand through his hair at a stop light. “I _do_ care believe me.” Vlad pressed down on the accelerator as the light changed colors. “I care more than you could imagine, but…” Vlad trailed off, searching for the right words. “I just can’t seem to stay away.” He shook his head. Whether at his own stubbornness or the absurdity of the situation, Danny didn’t know.  
  
“Well why not? I mean she’s married to someone else, so she obviously isn’t interested. Hell, she had his kid.” Danny bit his tongue. _Oops_ he thought absently. He was trying to be nice to Vlad, not piss him off. Last thing he needed was Vlad on a tirade about this, it wouldn’t earn him any brownie points. _And I’ll need all of those so I can get to cash in later for the ‘You need to forgive Jack’ speech. Yeah, note to self, don’t antagonize so much._  
  
Vlad gave Danny a disconcertingly calm smile. “If you say so Daniel.” Vlad turned back towards the road. “I rather like Jasmine, she’s a joy.”  
  
“She’s like a baby. The only thing those things do is cry, and poop, and eat, and cry some more.” Danny complained. He shuddered and crossed his arms. He remembered that flour sack project, and couldn’t imagine kids being fun. That had to have been the worst project of his school career. _Worse than even that time they made us dress like vegetables for that mandatory school play._ Danny noted with old frustration.  
  
Vlad chuckled at Danny’s antics. “Well I’m happy you’re not interested in children at your age, but for your information, they can be quite fun.”  
  
“Which part? The pooping or the crying?” Danny asked sarcasm laced through the sentence.  
  
“Neither.” Vlad said with some finality. “The smiles and the watching them learn things part is rather nice though.”  
  
“Why do you even like this kid anyway?” Danny asked momentarily forgetting the ‘not antagonizing Vlad thing.’ “I mean she’s not even yours.”  
  
Vlad made a considering noise as they pulled onto the street with Fentonworks. “Maybe so, but when you fall in love, you’ll find even the smallest extensions for them almost as irresistible as the person themselves.” Vlad pulled the key out the ignition, and stepped out of the car.  
  
Danny followed his lead, and pressed the line of thought a little further before they got to the door. “So you like Jasmine because you love Maddie? That’s crazy…”  
  
“Yes.” Vlad agreed immediately, looking through the key ring for the right key. “But then again, I’m crazy about her.” Vlad slipped the key into the lock and pushed the door open. They were happily greeted by Maddie and her daughter.

 

* * *

 

  
He was going crazy, he was sure of it. They had spent the last two hours inside of Fentonworks, and in that time span, Danny was sure he had lost his mind. It was the only reasonable explanation for what he was witnessing. Vlad had settled into the house, his home, nearly instantaneously. Helping clean, or cook lunch, or playing with Jasmine like he belonged here. And if Danny stopped to think about it, he felt more out of place than Vlad acted. He was sure that all of that had driven him nuts, because right now that would explain what he was seeing, Vlad wrist deep in the efforts of diaper changing, while his mother made easy banter with him. She had retreated into the kitchen to finish off the rest of lunch. Fearlessly leaving someone, Danny considered the least qualified man in the world for the job, to the task of fixing her defenseless writhing daughter a new pamper. _I’ve definitely lost it. Maybe Fruitloop’s craziness is contagious?_ Danny wondered with dismay.  
  
Vlad finished with the diaper, and hoisted the happy infant into his arms. “All clean. That’s better isn’t it peanut?” Vlad cooed.  
  
Danny suppressed a gag, and turned back to the TV. He had given up really watching it. Just like with the radio, there was nothing on he wanted to see. Everything on was ‘old school’ by his standards, and that unfortunately only left Vlad’s nauseating behavior and his own unease with his mom agreeing to it. In Danny’s estimation, Vlad spent nearly 30% of his time cooing at his eventual older sister, and the other 70% flirting with his mom. And to make matters worse, she didn’t seem creeped out by it. _Maybe she just likes the attention?_ Danny attempted for the fifth time that hour to figure it out.  
  
In truth, Maddie was like any woman. Married or not, she liked compliments, and Vlad was more than happy to heap them on, in between cleaning her house and doing all the dirty work of parenting. For at least one day a week, she didn’t have to worry about it. She wasn’t about to turn that down. _Besides,_ she reasoned, _it’s harmless. And I’m sure he doesn’t actually mean any of it._ Maddie finished the stir-fry and poured it out of the skillet and into a plastic container for later. She had made enough to last three day at least. Left-overs were becoming a staple in the household, now that their new daughter was draining the finances. “If you are all finished in there, I’m all done with lunch. Why don’t you boys wash up, and I’ll fix you both plates?” Maddie offered.  
  
Danny rose and was up the stairs to the bathroom before Maddie had even finished the sentence. He had wanted to leave the room for the last hour, but didn’t have an excuse to wander the house. Vlad raised an eyebrow when he caught up to Danny in the bathroom.  
  
“How did you know where this was?” Vlad inquired with suspicion.  
  
“I uh-” Danny mentally groped for a good lie. “I’m good with house layouts. My…adoptive father is in construction, so I know where they usually stick stuff like bathrooms.” Danny finished off with a shrug. He hoped that was good enough, mundane enough, to satisfy Vlad. When he didn’t respond, Danny took it as a good sign. He slunk out of the bathroom and back down the stairs, eager to both get away from Vlad’s keen eyes and to get to the delicious smelling food in the kitchen.  
  
Vlad tapped his foot in thought. That wasn’t the first time Danny had displayed a nearly uncanny knowledge of either the Fenton’s and their life, or his own. He wasn’t sure where the boy was getting his knowledge, but it was beginning to nag at his thoughts. He was sure he wasn’t lying, about a lot of things, but it didn’t add up. _And then there’s the tension and constant sour mood he’s been in since we got here._ Vlad pondered as he scrubbed his hands. _Just like when we came over the last time, he’s moody, tense, and jumpy._ Vlad wasn’t sure what it all meant yet, but he was determined to find out. He shut off the water and headed back downstairs himself.  
  
Maddie smiled at him when he entered the room, and Vlad felt his heart flutter. He was sure that would never get old or stop. Nearly five years of knowing her hadn’t dimmed that reaction yet, and he wasn’t in a rush to help it along. He settled into his seat opposite her at the table, and right next to Danny. The pile of pork and beef stir-fry on the table looked amazing, and it should taste just as good. _Hell I bought half of the ingredients_. Vlad mused as he took a bite.  
  
Danny sat silently next to him, working through his food practically imitating a vacuum cleaner.  
  
Maddie giggled at Danny’s inhaling antics. “My goodness Vlad do you even feed this child?” She pointed a fork in Vlad’s direction. “He’s acting like he hasn’t eaten in days.”  
  
“He ate a whole pizza singlehandedly last night. I think despite his size, he just eats a lot. Maybe he’s hiding another person in his stomach.”  
  
“Now Vlad,” Maddie started with a wry smile, “I didn’t eat that much when I was pregnant.”  
  
“Who said I was talking about you? If I recall, most teenagers eat like this. Sounds like you are being paranoid. Don’t tell me you are worried about that fantastic figure of yours?”  
  
Danny gagged quietly on his food. The sudden bouts of flirtation were throwing him off. It was bad enough when his parents did it, at least then it was normal and he was used to it. Here, it was Vlad, and it was all wrong.  
  
Maddie, to Danny’s discomfort, only batted her eyelashes in encouragement. She hid a pleased smile behind a bite of food at Vlad’s blush. “My figure is just fine thank you. I just thought you were misremembering.” She enjoyed teasing him and getting him worked up. It was all too easy, and for someone who was normally so calm and cool, it was a treat to see him flustered. “Besides, Jasmine was well worth the extra food. No buyer’s remorse here.” She set down her fork to spoon another mouthful of baby food into Jasmine’s mouth.  
  
Jasmine wiggled in her high seat, half avoiding the insistent spoon at her mouth. She swiveled her head towards Danny and reached out for him.  
  
Danny quirked his mouth into a thin line upon seeing Jasmine reach for him, and scooted away.  
  
“Oh don’t be like that. I’m sure she’s not going to get to your food before you can.” Vlad teased as Danny slid closer in his direction.  
  
“That’s not it.” Danny said while avoid another more determined swipe from the infant. “Babies just always have sticky fingers. All the time. I don’t want them on my clothes.”  
  
“My clothes.” Vlad corrected absently while eating another forkful.  
  
“Yeah you’re right, that explains why they are so lame.”  
  
Vlad gave Danny a look of mock hurt. “Lame? I’ll have you know Daniel; I’m one of the coolest people around.”  
  
“Yeah polo shirts and blue jeans are the height of fashion forward and cool.” Danny retorted dryly.  
  
“And I’m sure you would know, what with only apparently owning one outfit.”  
  
Danny sputtered indignantly. Sure his clothes were pretty similar to one another, but it’s not like Vlad’s were any better. Then Danny remembered he only had what he’d been wearing the Sunday he had appeared in this time. He settled his features into a small frown at the bad jab, before finishing off his plate, and reaching for the serving spoon for another helping. “I have more than one outfit, but it’s not like different colored polos make _you_ look all that different.”  
  
“Daniel if you actually looked into my closet, you’d find yourself greatly surprised.” Vlad walked his empty plate to the sink; Maddie’s placed on top of his own.  
  
Danny picked up his fork, only to have a puff of blue mist eek out of his mouth before he could shove more food into it. He shivered and looked around. It wasn’t uncommon for there to be a lot of passing spirits in Amity, and he wasn’t really sure of maximum range of his ghost sense anymore. While he usually only felt ghosts when they were practically on top of him, recently, he had been feeling them farther out. Adding to that, the fact Amity seemed to be less haunted over all in this time, and he was left wondering if there was something to worry about after all. _Not like I could do anything about it at the moment._ He mused as he set another forkful of food into his mouth.  
  
Maddie finished feeding Jasmine and set about cleaning the remains of lunch off of her face. She was so distracted; she didn’t notice the second time Danny’s ghost sense went off. Now more concerned than ever, Danny resisted the urge to find an excuse to leave so he could go ghost. He really didn’t need to show up all the way in the past, who knows what kind of problems that could cause to the time line. It was the same basic reason he didn’t go looking for a job. He wanted to minimize his interactions in this time as much as possible.  
  
Danny focused on his plate, as another shiver racked his system. Wherever, or whoever this ghost was, it was beginning to get on his nerves. He was nearly 16 years in the past, and he still couldn’t catch a break on being the hero. _What rotten luck._ Danny mentally groused. He finished off his second plate, now entirely disinterested in eating. He walked over to where Vlad was cleaning the rest of the dishes and handed his over. His ghost sense went off a fourth time, but Vlad was too distracted to notice.  
  
His own had been running almost constantly for the last ten minutes. He knew whose energy it was too, and it was making him nervous. The ghost had never left the town where his apartment was before, and he was nearly sure it was looking for him. He had expressly demanded that it leave Amity, and especially the young Fenton’s trying to make a name in the ghost hunting community, alone. So far, the ghost had complied, but now Vlad was worried it was going to ignore his demand.  
  
He scrubbed inattentively at the dishes; his mind entirely consumed with dread as the presence drew closer and hovered right above the Fenton roof. He was about to make an excuse to leave the house for a moment, when a loud boom resonated throughout the home. _He would not dare!_ Vlad screamed mentally, thoughts dark with fury. He raced out of the room and headed down into the basement. They had weapons down there.

 

* * *

  
  
Maddie grabbed her daughter, eyes drawn upwards to the new hole in her house ceiling.  
  
“Plasmius, I know you are in here.” The being’s eyes traveled the length of the room exposed to his vision. Its dark gaze locked onto Maddie’s form nearly immediately, and broke out into a predatory smile. “Is that little _human_ woman the reason you can not manage to show up on time for any of our meetings?” It wondered aloud, floating lower into the hole it had made with its ecto-blast.  
  
Vlad suddenly appeared in the room, face darkened with rage. He had a large ecto-gun in his hands, courtesy of the growing cache of sorts the Fenton’s were building up in their basement. He lifted it up towards the specter currently floating in the middle of the Fenton’s broken roof. It was one thing to intrude in his life, or even threaten it, but threatening to do harm to anyone currently in this house was way over the line, at least in his book.  
  
When the ghost only floated lower, he flicked a switch to charge the weapon. It let out a menacing whine that would have given him pause if he was on the other side of its muzzle. As it so happened, the ghost he was aiming at wasn’t impressed in the slightest. _Arrogant ignorant ass._ Vlad hissed mentally while switching the weapon to its highest setting. “Stop right there.”  
  
“I thought I made it clear, I was the one who made the demands Plasmius.”  
  
Vlad narrowed his eyes at the ghost when it called him by his other half’s name. “I’m not going to say it again ghost. Leave, or I’ll blast you into ecto-goo.” By this time, Maddie had found a weapon she could wield with one arm, and was aiming with it at the ghost from the kitchen.  
  
The ghost flared its energy, furious at Vlad for the threat. “You like these pathetic inferior beings that much?” It ground out. “Then you can die with them. Forget my offer of apprenticeship you little worm.” The ghost punctuated the statement by firing a bright green blast in Vlad’s direction.  
  
It hit dead on its target, and Vlad was thrown across the room. He slammed into the other side hard enough for several large chunks of plaster to fall off of the wall.  
  
The ghost fired another blast directly above him, burying Vlad in a raining storm of wooden 2x4s, metal pipes, and particle board. They hid the light from Vlad’s transformation just as planned. He turned intangible and slipped back outside the house, so he could approach it from another angle.  
  
Maddie, having seen Vlad get blasted across the room, began firing several well-aimed shots at the hovering ghost. She frowned when her usual aerobatics were thrown off by shifting Jasmine around in her arms. She back flipped, using only her legs to perform the trick, and fired another shot from on top of her kitchen table. She jumped when a blast came her way, destroying her table into an explosion of wooden splinters.  
  
She landed and fired shot immediately upon settling. It struck true, and she had a second to breathe and strategize. She looked around for Danny, to tell him to get behind her, only see he was nowhere to be found. Slightly distracted by her worry for Danny’s safety, she didn’t notice the creature firing a blast in her direction. It neared her body, hot and crackling with angry energy, before a bright pink dome jumped in between it and her. She swiveled as the owner of the pink dome appeared suddenly in her kitchen.  
  
Vlad glared fiercely at the ghost currently holding a smoking hand towards the kitchen. The blast would have killed Maddie, and maybe even Jasmine cradled in her mother’s arms, easily. This fight needed to be moved, somewhere much safer. He flew around Maddie, ignoring her now nervously shaking arm, and set himself in front of the ghost’s line of sight of the kitchen.  
  
Maddie was feeling more panicked by the second. First one powerful ghost shows up out of the blue, and then Daniel disappeared. Now, there was another powerful specter in her house, and this one was basically within spitting distance of her and her child. To make matters worse, the only other competent adult in the house was buried under a pile of rubble, likely injured, possible even dead.  
  
She didn’t know what she would do if these two creatures ganged up on her. If she didn’t have Jasmine to worry about, or if Vlad or her husband were standing with her, she’d be fine. As it was now, she would be in serious trouble if that happened. The spook moved to the other side of her, and she quickly pivoted to keep it in her line of sight. To her shock it placed itself in between her and other ghost.  
  
“What are you doing here Dracul?” The second ghost practically snarled in the first’s direction. “I made it perfectly clear, I’d do whatever you wanted, but _you_ had to leave Amity Park alone.”  
  
The first ghost, Dracul, Maddie noted somewhere in the back of her mind, crossed its arms and set its face into a dark scowl. “I honored your request because it suited me, and for no other reason. It no longer suits my fancy to have you thinking you can defy me for any reason. These beings,” it paused and pointed in Maddie’s direction. “Obviously are keeping you from my service.”  
  
The second ghost fixed a heated glare in Dracul’s direction, before replying. “What I do with my time is my own business. You, however, have no business being here. What I do protecting the lives of humans is none of your concern.” The second ghost floated slightly away from her, and up closer to the first ghost.  
  
If she didn’t know any better, she’d think that second ghost was defending her. _Then again, all ghosts are evil, so that’s ridiculous._ Maddie justified before slinking back towards the backdoor to her house. She needed to get out of here, for her daughter’s sake.  
  
“I’ve had enough of your defiance and arrogance Plasmius. This ends today. If I have to break your little toys to accomplish it, then so be it.” The two ghosts stared off, floating on the same level. Abruptly, the duo flew at each other, and Maddie took that as the cue it was.  
  
She ran out of the backdoor as the second ghost kicked the first clear through the roof. _Couldn’t have just thrown him out of the hole that Dracul character made could it?_ Maddie thought exasperated. She ran to the neighbor’s house, wanting to hand her daughter over before running back to face the two ghosts. With her hands free, she reasoned, she’d be more than a match for the two of them. Despite the large ruckus the ghosts were kicking up, it wasn’t until Maddie gave her daughter to the neighbors that she began crying. Now more determined than ever to get this battle ended, Maddie ran back outside.  
  
High above the town of Amity, Vlad was letting a few months worth of aggravation out on the vampiric ghost. He let a particularly large blast snake across the distance between him and the other specter.  
  
To Dracul’s astonishment, the blast changed directions on Vlad’s command. It morphed into a large blanket like shape, before wrapping around his body, pinning his arms.  
  
Vlad let the ghost plummet towards the earth, unable to fly with his energy wrapped around his form. He was sure it would hit the ground, when it suddenly turned into dark smoke, slipping from the bindings and back into the sky. Vlad growled in frustration. _That teleportation trick is more annoying than really ought to be possible._  
  
Instead of rematerializing back in front of him, it made a sharp turn back towards the earth…Back towards Maddie Fenton.  
  
Vlad gasped as the smoke solidified into the figure of his opponent, scant feet in front of the woman he loved. Struck with a sudden need for inspiration, he threw his arms out and concentrated. He hadn’t tried making a shield he wasn’t inside of before, but now wasn’t the time to worry about that.  
  
Maddie skidded to a halt, as the nearly black smoke turned into the solid form of one of the ghosts from earlier. She hadn’t seen a ghost teleport before, but she already hated the ability. She barely had time to heft her gun up to fire, before the figure raised an emerald colored hand and did so itself. She waited and waited for the searing pain, only to find it non-existent. Maddie opened her eyes, just as the pink glow was fading from around her.  
  
The second ghost lowered the hastily made shield accidently, a break in concentration at the shock of it actually working the cause.  
  
Dracul flew back up at Vlad, resolute in his thoughts of bending the stubborn free-spirited ghost to his will. He needed to tire him out more, before he could conceivably attack the humans he protected so ferociously. Dracul fired several shots in ever growing strength towards his less experienced opponent.  
  
Vlad dodged the first few before two of the last shots slammed into his body. He dropped head over heel through the air, directly towards the concrete laden ground below. With a loud thud, he crashed into the earth, leaving a small crater from his impromptu landing.  
  
Dracul calmly floated over to Vlad’s prone body, softly setting down a few feet away. He reached down and wrenched Vlad up to his eye level, taking demented pleasure in the way his head lolled about in Vlad’s dazed state. With achingly slow menace, Dracul began draining the spectral energy from Vlad’s ghost form. He watched with nearly manic glee as his ghostly glow disappeared from his body. He never got over the maddening rush of energy he felt when he drained another being, human or ghost.  
  
Vlad struggled weakly in Dracul’s hold, curling his hands around the wrists leveling him up nearly off his feet. He watched as Dracul siphoned more of his energy off with seemingly exhausted interest. He took a deep breath and gripped Dracul’s wrists with surprising strength. A second later, Vlad was sending his spectral energy directly into Dracul’s body. He knew that except for when he directed the absorption, Dracul was just as vulnerable to energy attacks as any other ghost.  
  
Dracul let out a monstrous cry, and threw Vlad from his grasp. The energy currently leaving an aching pain through his wrists was exceptionally hot. He flew back up to a safer distance and leveled a furious glare in Vlad’s direction. Dracul rubbed his wrist to massage the pain way before saying, “Clever little ghost, but you’ll have to do better than that to defeat me.” He noted with concern that Vlad’s glow had completely recovered. He’d never seen a ghost rebound in energy so fast after he drained it. It left him nervous, while he was an experienced fighter, his reserves were low.  
  
His stamina had always been poor, but with his vampiric powers, he had little need to develop them. If he needed more energy, he just sucked it clean out of his opponent. It served the dual purpose of strengthening him, and sending his opponent/victim closer to defeat. Now, however, he was faced with the very real possibility Vlad was either immune or barely effected by large losses of power.  
  
Dracul narrowed his eyes and clenched his teeth. From the determined set of the insubordinate boy’s shoulders and stiff jaw, he was planning on nothing less than a complete victory, and that wouldn’t do. He flew back towards Vlad, mind made up to use a more effective technique. _Though it’s going to be difficult to get the hold needed to drain him like that._ Dracul thought with slight worry.  
  
Vlad for his part was more interested in the woman steadfastly aiming an ecto-gun in between him and Dracul. He knew Maddie wasn’t one to be easily daunted, but he thought having her defenseless child around would send her running for safety. Unfortunately, he forgot to account for her determination properly, seeing as she had only hidden Jasmine somewhere safe before returning. _Likely with the neighbors_ Vlad thought ruefully.  
  
At the moment, Maddie was holding the weapon in his direction, a look of stubborn aggression affixed on her face. He needed some way to convince her to leave the area, but if she wasn’t scared of being hurt in the ensuing battle, and Maddie likely wasn’t, that option wasn’t really viable. Maddie wasn’t ever easily scared. Still he had to think of something. It was hard enough to fight this creature without worrying about her safety, and there was no way the ghost wouldn’t take advantage of her presence.  
  
Maddie’s eyes bounced back and forth between her two targets. The ghost known as Dracul was the physically weaker of the two of them, quickly expending energy much faster than the second. But something about it had her on edge, so despite the fact she would usually discount the ghost as the minor threat, she was left with no option but to equally prioritize the two spectral beings.  
  
The second problem was her emotional distraction nudging at the back of her brain. She hadn’t been in too many actual fights with ghosts before, and in spite of the fact she was well trained, she was still nervous. On top of all of that, Daniel was still missing, Vlad was probably injured, and even with her daughter in the relative safety of the neighbor’s house, it still nagged at her battle inexperienced mind. She fidgeted nervously with her gun, and swung it back around towards the second ghost. She was really beginning to miss Jack. At least if he was here, she’d feel safer.  
  
Noticing Vlad’s inattention at the last moment, Dracul’s focus shifted to where Vlad was glancing. A disquieting smile settled over his features, knowing how to get close enough to his opponent for this next attack to work. He changed the direction of his dive, and shot down straight for Maddie.  
  
Vlad gasped, broken out of his worried musings by the sudden change in the purpose of Dracul’s flight. He twisted into a dive, single-minded in his intention to cut off Dracul in the air, or intersperse himself in between the blood thirsty ghost and Maddie on the ground. When he noticed Dracul picking up speed, he poured on the afterburners to cut off his descent.  
  
Maddie saw Vlad dive-bomb her location and let off a few shots meant to ward him off. She turned, too late, to notice the second ghost heading for her position.  
  
Dracul took advantage of the inadvertent cover fire to pull out of his dive. He snapped to a stop in front of the firing woman, just as Vlad beat him to her. Mere inches separating them, just as he supposed would happen.  
  
Vlad dodged the wild shots with growing irritation. _Figures she would shot at the person trying to save her._ He complained mentally, urging himself to even faster speeds. He appeared in front of Maddie, just before Dracul got there. He suppressed a wince when Dracul’s clawed hand sunk into the tender flesh above his collarbone. He felt Dracul hook his claws behind the bone and yank.  
  
The ghost used his bloody purchase to force Vlad closer. With a nearly animalistic growl of triumph, Dracul sunk his pointed fangs directly into Vlad. He could siphon off energy much faster and more effectively this way. The only way more effective, was to grasp the core of the ghost, but not only did he have to contend with the consolidated will of the ghost in question, he was sure Vlad’s core would be too hot to attempt that on. He revealed in the feeling of his drained body refilling with powerful and unique energy.  
  
Vlad barely had time to balk at the intrusion into his energy, before he felt it rapidly disappear from his body. He knew he could replenish the energy, being half-ghost, but even after all the practice he’d been having regenerating energy quickly since meeting this ghost, he shocked by the speed that his strength left him.  
  
Vlad was dizzy before he could really react to the attack, and worse he was growing nearly exponentially weaker by the moment. He could feel his core straining under the burden of keeping his ghost form in the face of Dracul’s onslaught. Vlad grit his teeth. He couldn’t transform here, not out of the open and right in front of Maddie. He began to panic when the strength to hold his form disappeared with the rapid draw of power into Dracul.  
  
Maddie took those few seconds to stare dumbfounded at the battling pair. There was really no denying now that the other ghost, Plasmius her harried mind supplied, was defending her. The real question was why. She watched with detached interest as the first ghost roughly grasped and pulled the second much closer. Her nearly scientific interest turned into shock as she saw Plasmius’ ghostly aura dip precipitously. She was certain it was Dracul’s doing. Somehow it was draining the second ghost of its energy.  
  
Maddie didn’t really trust the second ghost that had been defending her, she didn’t, frankly, trust any ghost farther than she could blast it. But she needed an ally at the moment, and that ghost was the only option. She hefted her weapon and took aim. A worried frown marred her features; they were way too close to one another for her to get a clean shot.  
  
She wasn’t scared about killing either of them eventually, but at the moment she needed that Plasmius ghost in one piece. She startled when its aura grew even dimmer, and moved around to get a better shot. She was about to take it, when someone else beat her to it. Neon green energy streaked from behind her and slammed into the vampire ghost, aim straight and true.  
  
Dracul dropped a panting, bleeding Vlad onto the asphalt below when he was thrown into a nearby light pole by an unknown ghost’s blast. He hissed as ectoplasm leaked from the shallow burn wound in his shoulder, where he had been struck.  
  
“Hey Dracula, why don’t you pick on someone your own size?” A strong youthful voice rang through the air. Danny hovered, arms crossed in confidence, as he stared down his nose at the fallen ghost. It had taken him nearly 10 minutes to find somewhere to transform. It seemed like everyone in this whole town was congregating to the battle between Vlad and Dracul, and it made it maddeningly difficult to find cover. Still, now he was floating over the battle, smug smile firmly in place as he watched the injured ghost lift himself from the bent streetlamp he had sent him into.  
  
Dracul glared deadly and heavy with promise of pain, at Danny floating nearly innocently above him. He had never seen the ghost before, but if it had the audacity to fire upon him, it was about to have its afterlife ended. Dracul extracted himself from the barely standing lamp post and flew up to meet the youthful ghost on its level. “And that person would be you little ghost?” Dracul noted with amusement the size of his much younger opponent.  
  
The ghost was much smaller than him and from the set of his body, an inexperienced fighter too. However, the ghost possessed a significant amount spectral energy, and even if he didn’t know how to use it, that would be a problem. Dracul decided to divest him of all of that extra energy immediately.  
  
On the ground below, Vlad was having trouble recovering from the extreme removal of his spectral energy. He glanced up to where Danny and Dracul were hovering with a small note of concern. He hadn’t seen that ghost before, but Dracul was a dangerous being. If it got too close to that other ghost, it would suck the large amount of spectral energy it possessed out of him, and he didn’t need the vampire ghost any stronger. Rising on shaking limbs, Vlad eyed the two ghosts cautiously, before flying directly next to Danny to face Dracul with him.  
  
“It sure would be big fella. Don’t be discouraged by my size, I’m sure if you tried really hard, you might be able to land a hit.” Danny retorted as Vlad appeared by his side. He had time to register something vaguely reminiscent of shock, before they were both dodging a series of nearly forest green colored blasts.  
  
He tried to separate them, firing strong shots in between where they floated. Separate targets would be much easier to handle after all. Dracul kept a near constant rain of attacks, forcing the two half ghosts to either hide behind each other’s shields or dodge away from the searing heat of his green energy.  
  
“Where,” Danny stopped to grunt when another blast slammed into the shield his was making for them both, “is he getting all this energy?”  
  
Vlad narrowed his eyes before switching places with Danny on who was holding the shield. “From me unfortunately.” Vlad dropped the shield opting to dodge instead, and hopefully get in a shot or two.  
  
Danny startled before dodging an ecto-blast meant for his chest. “Yours?” Danny asked skeptically. “How did he get it?”  
  
Vlad growled low in his throat as he deflected another blast with a hastily made shield. “The obvious way, he stole it.”  
  
“Really? I was just joking about that Dracula thing. I mean he looks the part, pale skin, scary fangs and all but-” Danny was cut off when a lucky shot smacked into his stomach.  
  
“If you want to waste time talking, how about we use it to work up a strategy?” Vlad offered when Danny had recovered and was floating by his side under another shield.  
  
“What did you have in mind?” Danny asked, a knowing smile already curling across his face. While it sucked to be on the receiving end of one of Vlad’s plans, even Danny had to agree he came up with some good ones.  
  
Vlad made a shield outside of Danny’s own, to give them more time to talk. “We need a distraction. You’re much faster than I am, and frankly more annoying.”  
  
“Hey!”  
  
Vlad shook his head before continuing, “You don’t bother me kid, but this ghost lives on power and the display of it. If he sees a younger, less experienced ghost flying circles around him, it’ll drive him nuts. Which is what I need to happen. If you could buy me 5 minutes, I could get enough power to actually double team him with you.”  
  
“What do you call what we are doing now?” Danny made a half-hearted gesture to the general area they were floating in. A loud crack filled the air as Vlad’s outer shield shattered.  
  
“Floating and dodging for our lives. That’s not fighting, I’m sure we can do much better.” Vlad moved fluidly into a defensive stance, before nodding at Danny. A second later, the shield was dropped and the two flew off in opposite directions.  
  
Dracul smirked sadistically at the two currently separated fighters. He had been trying to break them up, but it seems they had foolishly done it for him. He instantly flew after Danny. _It is always easier to bring little lambs to the slaughter instead of rams._ He followed Danny doggedly, drawing closer, closer, closer…and then the young ghost shot ahead again just out of reach. This happened a few more times, before it became obvious that Danny was playing with him. Dracul narrowed his eyes, and poured on the speed, but no matter how fast he flew, the younger ghost was still faster. To his shock, the smaller ghost began flying literal circles around him, always keeping himself just out of reach.  
  
“What’s the matter Dracula?” Danny taunted. “Can’t seem to keep up?” Danny pivoted in mid-air to avoid Dracul’s angry swipe. He missed Danny by feet. He heard Dracul growl and try to make another pass, which was quickly and deftly avoided. _This is easier than I thought it would be. He’s slow as a slug, what’s-_ Danny’s thoughts stopped with his body as Dracul appeared directly in front of him. 

Using his greater agility, Danny barely dodged the green glowing fist headed for his skull. _Whoa! That was close. Better watch out for that teleportation trick._ Danny managed to avoid several more teleport aided attacks by Dracul, with ever closing margins. _Just what the hell is Vlad doing?_ Danny wondered.  
  
Vlad had completely blocked out everything but the feeling of the charged ectoplasm flowing through his system. He had learned, through recent practice, that the amount of energy his core produced could be changed. Temporarily, in the same vein that those with mediation practice, he could increase or decrease the energy production like a human could with their own heart beat or respiration. The technique had draw backs, like hampering energy production for a short period afterward or needing a few minutes for it to take effect, but in a pinch, it was the best way to get more energy. He only needed another 30 seconds or so, and he’d be back to full power. Unfortunately, the fierce yell from Danny reminded him, he didn’t have the time.  
  
Dracul had finally managed to get a hold of Danny. He had his greedy claws wrapped around the teen hero’s black jump suit. He took a moment to savor the look of shock sprinkled with fear on Danny’s face, before trying to pull the ecto-energy from Danny’s body. Just when he had gotten started, a large green blast threw him into a parked car below.  
  
Danny grasped his head in pain. That last punch had taken it out of him; luckily, Dracul hadn’t had a chance to drain him of any energy. He turned to where he saw Vlad hovering, and gave him a thumbs-up in gratitude. Danny frowned when he saw Vlad shake his head and point down. Curious, he followed the direction of his hand to…his mother holding a smoking ecto-weapon.  
  
Maddie had been waiting for a good shot on that vampire ghost for nearly 5 minutes. With the younger ghost flying all over the place, she hadn’t been able to pick it off. But since he had been forced to be still, she had been able to do something she’d wanted to do since the battle started blast something. _Serves that creature right, blasting a hole in my house, threatening my family, being an evil bastard._ Maddie took a second to re-aim her weapon, before letting off another shot at the vampire ghost currently trying to recover on the ground. She sent it deeper into the crater it had made when it fell, and earned a wince from both half-ghosts currently floating above the scene.  
  
Dracul had been blindsided. He had completely forgotten about the female human holding the odd looking weapon. He was now intimately familiar with the sting of an ecto-weapon, and had no interested in repeating the experience. When he saw another vibrant green attack head his way, he teleported several feet away, into the air. When he had rematerialized, Dracul took stock of the situation with dismay. He was now facing two ghosts and a human with a powerful and painful weapon. More importantly, that last attack had drained his power when his body had healed from the attack. He needed to make himself scarce. Dracul threw up a shield when the younger ghost shot towards his position. “It seems I have been severely outnumbered.” He drawled, calm as ever. “Little Plasmius, when you want to finish this battle one on one like a real ghost; you know where to find me.” His voice grew into a whisper as his form dispersed into dark vapor like smoke.  
  
Vlad shook his head. This fight had been much longer and more complicated than he had wanted it. Worse, he had completely broken the fragile alliance with that psychotic sadistic ghost. Now he was free to attack anything he pleased, and with how drained he appeared before he disappeared, humans may be on the menu. He turned towards where the mysterious younger ghost had been floating, only to find he was already gone. He was about to look for him, when the distinctive whine of an ecto-gun being charged reached his ears.  
  
Maddie was pointing it directly at him, a look of grim determination plastered on her face.  
_I guess her good graces have run out._ Vlad thought ruefully. He tossed her a small smile before saying, “Oh, don’t worry about me. I’m as good as gone.” Vlad started off in a random direction, only to be cut off by a shot by Maddie. He turned back towards her, not at all prepared to fight.  
  
Maddie only fixed her aim directly over his core before flicking the setting down a few notches. She didn’t trust it, but she still owed it a debt of sorts. So the next blast would only stun instead of kill if it hit. Plus she had a few questions. “Why?” She put forward tone stern.  
  
Vlad raised an eyebrow. _Just what is she referring to?_ He pondered before replying, “Why what?”  
  
Maddie huffed in exasperation. What she was asking was obvious, or at least should have been. Still, she humored it. “Why did you tell that other ghost that you protecting humans was none of his business? Why do you protect humans? Why did you protect me? _Why?_ ” She repeated emphatically. She hefted the gun a little higher, further away from its core. _Don’t want it unconscious either._ She rationalized.  
  
Vlad shook his head while crossing his arms. There really wasn’t a way to answer that. _Well, one that won’t result in more insistent questions. Besides, I need to sneak my way back under that debris before someone moves it to get after me._  
  
Maddie pursed her lips, not at all satisfied with his response. “Answer me ghost!” She demanded in her best authoritative tone. The ghost looked about ready to talk when a voice from the crowed distracted her.  
  
“Mrs. Fenton! What in the world is going on in my town?” The crowd partially parted so that a well-dressed figure could make it over to her. The current mayor of the town stood a few feet off, brows creased in some combination of worry, shock, and anger.  
  
By the time Maddie had looked away from the scowling mayor, the ghost had disappeared. She growled and ground her molars. She had had that thing in her sights. Now more peeved than was safe for the random rubbernecking residents and passersby, she stomped over to the mayor. “What’s going on is what my husband and I have been trying to tell you about for the last year and a half. This town is infested with ghosts, and like I already told you, it’s incredibly dangerous.” Maddie slung the gun behind her to hang on a hook on her belt. She crossed her arms and waited for the mayor’s new justification for not investing in ghost defense weapons.  
  
“Mrs. Fenton,” He started in a outraged voice, “as I told you before, I didn’t think such precautions were necessary.”  
  
“Well obviously you were wrong.” Maddie firmly interrupted.  
  
“We’ve never had a single attack until now.” The mayor defended. “Maybe it was something you and your husband have been doing to bring these specters into our town.”  
  
Maddie scrunched her face into a frown. “My husband and I are the reason why no one was hurt today.”  
  
“Well if you two are so competent, then why is your house in shambles?” The mayor pointed behind Maddie to the profile of her home. Two holes in the roof, smoke rising from the center; it wasn’t the most convincing picture.  
  
“Because that’s where the fight started. That ghost blasted through the roof with no warning. In fa-”   
Maddie cut herself off with a gasp, hand flying to her mouth in stomach dropping fear. “Oh God! My friend’s still buried in there. I need some strong men to come with me to help dig him out.”  
  
“And you call yourself a competent ghost hunter. You let one of your friends get hurt.” The mayor snidely remarked.  
  
“With any due respect mister mayor, if I wasn’t a good ghost hunter, my friend would be the first on the large list on its way to the morgue. Now,” she interrupted the mayor’s rebuttal, “someone come over to my house and help me-”  
  
“Maddie!” An imposing bright orange clad figure cut through the crowd. “Maddie where are ya’ baby?” He pushed his way to the small clearing in the crowd where Maddie was standing.  
  
“Jack! Thank god. Listen, I you have to help me get Vlad-”  
  
“Don’t worry, Daniel already told me.”  
  
“Daniel?” Maddie peered around her husband’s impressive figure to spy Danny nervously waving back.   
  
“When did he-”  
  
“No time for that! We need to get Vladdie out from under all that stuff in the house.” Jack bounded off towards the direction of their home, several unwilling volunteers hooked along for the ride.  
  
Maddie grabbed Danny by the wrist and drug him after her. She didn’t want him getting lost in the crowd or disappearing again. She crossed the threshold to her house to find Jack and the three “volunteers” wrested into joining him already moving pieces of plywood out of the way. He had only been under there for a few minutes, but he had been hurtled into a wall, and blasted with ecto-energy before that. She wasn’t sure if he was alright, but even if he was hurt, she’d feel better when they got him from under all of that debris. She let go of Danny and moved over to give Jack a hand.  
  
A few determined moments of digging more, and they uncovered Vlad. He was still clutching the weapon he’d been tossed with, very much awake and alive. “Jack! What’s going on? Did you get that ghost?” He unsteadily got to his feet, ignoring Jack’s hand when offered.  
  
“It wasn’t here when I arrived. I think Maddie scared it off.”  
  
Vlad lifted the gun up and rested it on his shoulder. “That true Mads?”  
  
She nodded an affirmative, before giving him a visual once over. He didn’t look like he had been thrown into a wall. He didn’t even look like he had been hit with an ecto-blast. She was about to ask about it, when Vlad started talking.  
  
“I’m fine Maddie, don’t worry about me.” He said wavering off the concerned look on her face.   
  
“Where’s Jasmine?” He asked when he noticed neither parent had her.  
  
“With the Brown’s next door. Speaking of disappearances, where did you go Daniel?” Maddie turned back around towards him with her question.  
  
“I didn’t tell ya’?” Jack answered her with a question. “If I hadn’t run in Daniel, I would never have gotten here in time. I ran into him on the way back from that new lab Axio-something. In any case, he was all out of breath when he told me about what was going on at home. We came right back. Isn’t that right Daniel?”  
  
“Yeah.” Danny agreed immediately. It had really been coincidence that they had run into each other. Danny was just coming back from transforming, after he was sure the situation was under control, when he saw Jack coming out of Axiom labs. It made the perfect cover story, at the very least it meant he had one.  
  
Vlad pushed aside the shock he felt upon hearing about Danny appearing at Axiom. _Never mind how he knew where Jack was_ , “Why did you run off?” Vlad voiced the end of his thought out loud.  
Danny scuffled his feet sheepishly. “I got scared after I saw you get trashed by that ghost. I remembered Mrs. Fenton saying Mr. Fenton was at Axiom labs today, so I figured I go get him. Since, I can’t aim worth bunk, and can’t fight either. I’d just be a problem staying here.”  
  
Maddie smiled at him. “Danny, running off was more dangerous than staying next to me. But I appreciate your forethought.” She ran a hand through Danny’s hair before walking off to go get Jasmine from the neighbors.  
  
Danny heaved a sigh of relief. While Vlad had his cover story basically in the bag from the beginning, he had to make his up on the fly. As far as his poor lying skills were concerned, that had gone perfectly.  
  
Vlad wasn’t buying it. For one, Maddie had never mentioned where Jack was going today. For another, Axiom was clear on the other side of town. Finally, even if it was true, Vlad was just a little sore about the thought of Danny abandoning Maddie and Jasmine to a hostile ghost, poor fighter or not.   
He frowned in thought as he gave Jack back the borrowed gun.  
  
Maddie returned with Jasmine, and Vlad bid the Fenton’s farewell quicker than planned. He needed to get home, the drain of battle and lack of sleep was catching up to him. _Besides, I have a few questions for Daniel._  
     

* * *

  
  
Vlad had started in on Danny instantly after they were both seated inside the car. They had been talking for half an hour now and it wasn’t going well. At all. The conversation had started on Danny’s disappearance during the fight, and quickly veered into another subject, morality of all things.  
  
“I can’t believe you.” Danny repeated for the third time in the last ten minutes. He was livid. Vlad had the nerve to call him a dishonorable coward for “deserting” his mom and Jasmine earlier today. _Vlad doesn’t know the meaning of honor._ Danny seethed.  
  
“What’s there to doubt?” Vlad spat back. “You’re the one who left a woman and a defenseless baby alone with a monster.”  
  
“I already told you-”  
  
“Oh yes I know,” Vlad sarcastically interrupted, “you don’t know how to fight. Even if I was to believe that tripe, and I certainly don’t, it doesn’t excuse running off like a coward and lying about it afterwards.”  
  
“I wasn’t lying.”  
  
“Bullshit. I know a lie when I hear one.”  
  
“You would.” Danny muttered back.  
  
“Excuse me? What’s that supposed to mean?” Vlad turned to send Danny a particularly heated glare.  
  
“I mean, you’re an even bigger liar than I am.” Danny happily matched Vlad’s glare with one of his own, waiting for his response.  
  
“When have I lied to you?” Vlad swerved around a slower car on the highway. If they knew what was good for them, they’d stay out of his way today.  
  
“Your whole life is a lie. You’re pretending to be Jack Fenton’s friend while you try to sleep with his wife. How much lower can you get?”  
  
Vlad hissed and gripped the steering wheel harder. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”  
  
“Yeah right. You may know a lie when you hear it, but I wouldn’t be a teenager if I didn’t know flirting when I hear it. You spent the whole two hours before the ghost showed up flirting with her.” When Vlad looked like he was going to interrupt, Danny amended his statement. “Oh I’m sorry, you only spent three-fourths of the time flirting, the rest of the time you were taking care of a kid who’s not yours.”  
  
“So what if I was? Unlike your little indiscretion, flirting is harmless. Not like someone could get hurt or killed because of it. Which, by the way, was likely a result of you deserting Maddie in the middle of a ghost fight.”  
  
“Yeah like my anti-talented ass could actually be of help.”  
  
“Even if you weren’t, just having you suddenly disappear would distract her.” Vlad retorted.

“Being distracted in the middle of a fight is a dangerous thing.”  
  
“Well that sounds like a personal problem with her doesn’t it? Maybe she should work on that.” Danny shrugged off the nasty look Vlad gave him. He was always more defensive of Maddie than himself. _It’s like he thinks she’s God or something._  
  
“Regardless,” Vlad said changing pace, “it was not only dangerous for you to run off like that, but dangerous for her and even Jasmine as well. And I’m damn sure no one has died from flirting in the history of man.”  
  
“Maybe not,” Danny offered, “but they have been killed by jealous husbands.”  
  
“I’d _love_ to see him try.” Vlad closed his eyes for a second when they flashed red, before refocusing on the road.  
  
“You know what your problem is?” Danny posed, willing to get into an even bigger fight.  
  
“Oh no, but I’m sure you’ll enlighten me in any case.”  
  
“You think you have the moral high ground, but you’re completely full of shit. Chastising me about running from battle, when you’re giving it the good ole’ college try to break up a happy family. You’ve got a lot of balls to call my morality lacking mister kettle. I mean damn, should we ask a priest? What’s worse, being a coward, or trying to commit adultery?”  
  
“If you know what’s good for you Daniel,” Vlad started all too calmly, “you’ll drop this conversation right now.”  
  
“Or you’ll do what?” Danny challenged. “Throw me out of your house? Kick me out in the middle of nowhere on the side of this highway?” When Vlad didn’t respond to the questions, Danny pressed forward. “I didn’t think so. So why should your little ‘indiscretion’ get a pass lower on the morality totem pole than mine? Because I’m pretty sure-”  
  
“You don’t know Jack kid.” Vlad paused as their exit came into view. That made it a new record for how long it took to get home. He hadn’t glanced at the speedometer the whole trip. “I’m not doing anything wrong.”  
  
“Oh-”  
  
“Shut up and listen.” Vlad heaved a shaky sigh to gather his frayed nerves together. “I’m not going to say that I don’t want to be with Maddie, that would be a blatant lie, but I’m not going to make on a move on her while she’s married. And no witty banter doesn’t count Daniel.”  
  
“Witty-”  
  
Vlad shook his head to interrupt. “She was just joking Daniel. I promise; she wasn’t serious. I’m not stupid; I can tell real interest from teasing.”  
  
Danny creased his face in thought. “So you’re telling me all of that was just fun and games?” Danny passed a skeptical look in Vlad’s direction.  
  
Vlad nodded before saying, “it’s just the pretense of interest. She’s mostly joking, even if some of the banter is based in honest compliments.”  
  
“So let me get this straight. You spent the last couple hours, in between cleaning like the Molly Maid, _pretending_ to flirt with Maddie Fenton?”  
  
Vlad made a considering noise before saying, “Maddie was the only one pretending, but yes, the majority of that was feigned.”  
  
Danny frowned. “You told me before there was more than one reason to going over there. You only told me two, is there another one?”  
  
Vlad sighed wearily as they pulled into the parking lot in front of his apartment. “Leave this alone Daniel.” Vlad slid out of the car, before noticing Danny hadn’t moved.  
  
Danny gave Vlad a stubborn look, before refusing to leave the car by turning to face the front again.  
  
“You aren’t going to get out unless I answer that question are you?” Vlad said while peering back through the driver’s side window.  
  
Danny answered by remaining completely still in his seat.  
  
“Why does it matter so much Daniel?”  
  
Danny didn’t answer.  
  
Finally, Vlad opened the door to the car and sunk back into the seat again. “Okay little badger, I’ll tell you. The last reason I come over every Wednesday like clockwork is because for a few hours, I can pretend.”  
  
Danny looked back over towards Vlad, face softened and contemplative. Willing to listen. “Pretend what?”  
  
Vlad squirmed a little in his seat. He’d never said this out loud before, but he didn’t have to, to know it was pretty crazy, or desperate, depending on who heard it. “Pretend that they’re my family and not Jack’s.”  
  
Danny sat stock still as he processed what he’d just heard. “You know,” Danny ventured, “when I said you were crazy earlier, I didn’t mean it. Now that I think about it, you really _are_ crazy. You are one crazed up Fruitloop.” Danny finished by hopping out of the car.  
  
Vlad followed with a huff. “It’s not that crazy Daniel.”  
  
“Oh yeah, pretending someone else’s family is yours is like totally normal. Right up there with breathing and shit.” Danny sent Vlad an eye roll as they bounded up the stairs to his apartment.  
  
“I suppose it’s better than not having a family at all.” Vlad paused at his front door, and turned back around to face Danny. “You know what it’s like to have no one? To watch someone else live out something that should be yours? To watch your family disappear right before your eyes?”  
  
Danny’s eyes widened as he took in the new questions. Rhetorical or not, they’d stuck a scary close chord with him. He knew, at the very least for a few terrifying seconds, what it was like to feel that. He was silent as the two of them walked into the apartment. Quiet, as he prepared for bed, his mind doing all the talking for him. Maybe, just maybe, he could understand where Vlad was coming from.   
  
Maybe he knew what it was like to have no one, and he couldn’t honestly say he’d done much better. _Maybe the Fruitloop isn’t as crazy as I thought. Or maybe I’m just as crazy as he is._ Clockwork telling him that they were more alike than he thought came back in vivid replay. Danny went to sleep that night with the distinct worry that Vlad’s morals were beginning to rub off on him.   

**…then make sure you don’t lose sight of the light.**

 


	5. Interlude: Clockwork and the Observants

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Master of Time has more visitors.

The doors to Clockwork’s dark citadel creaked open. His domain was so quiet he could hear it from his viewing room. He didn’t have to though, he knew they were coming, likely long before they did. He waited in silence, there was no need to go met them. They were coming to him, and would be making enough noise for the three of them soon enough. Clockwork sighed as he heard their enlivened agreement on the other side of the door. _Sometimes, they are like a giant echo chamber._ A solid knock on the door to his viewing room echoed out. He rose to open it for them, a scant courtesy; they never entered his private study without permission. He addressed them as he opened the door, “Observants. To what do I owe the pleasure?” He barely had time to back away from the open door before they rushed through.

“Clockwork!” One Observant started clearly agitated. “We need to speak to you.” The other finished the sentiment.

Clockwork chuckled mirthlessly. “Yes I assumed you did. The question is about what.”

“About what?” The two of them asked simultaneously. “How ridiculous Clockwork. What else could we have come to speak to you about, but Danny Phantom?” The two Observants moved to the direct center of the room, arms crossed across their large eye obviously impatient. They half floated, half paced around the room, glancing quickly here and there. “The boy is mucking in the time stream.” The currently leftmost observant began. “Why in the world did you let him take the Medallion in the first place Clockwork?” The two of them paused and stared in his direction, expectant silence filling the space between them and Clockwork.

“The boy is my responsibility. It seemed the best course of action to allow him to take the Medallion.”

“For what reason?” The two spoke synchronized in both movement and voice.

Clockwork resisted the urge to frown. While the Observants had supposedly given him free reign of the boy, and the decisions he made, they were always questioning him about it. It seemed whether or not the decisions were his to make, they felt it was there place to meddle in them. Even if the consequences of both his and Danny’s decisions were his alone to bear. “Danny Phantom requested the Medallion for a mission. One I felt he needed to make, for the journey to its completion would only be for the greater good.”

“The greater good!” The Observants immediately screeched. “How could it be? The young halfa has _already_ changed the time line? He has set time on a completely different path with his actions.” They both paused in thought for a moment, before the rightmost Observant continued, “As if his presence in the past hasn’t done that already.”

“Has not the young Phantom traveled back into the past successfully already? With no discernable _deleterious_ effects to the time stream?” Clockwork’s question made the Observants nearly relentless float pacing stop.

“Only because you intervened.” The leftmost Observant immediately retorted. “Had you not stopped Danny Phantom when you did last,” the two of them began as one voice, “the time stream would have been irreparably harmed by his actions in Vlad Plasmius’ past.”

Clockwork stared coolly at the two Observants, willing them to continue. The disquieted look in their stares told him they were nowhere near done yet. He didn’t have to wait long.

“And now, Phantom is back in the past _again_ causing even more damage if possible. The effects of Vlad Plasmius never being created were paltry in comparison with this!” Their voices had taken on a fever pitch again. As a result they had fallen out of sync with one another, the extreme emotion draining their ability to properly coordinate their usual simultaneous speech patterns as one. “And the effects, the changes are already rippling through the time stream.” They charged on, now taking turns speaking. “Madeline Berkowitz was not supposed to see Vlad Plasmius until the college reunion years later.” They two of them calmed as they examined the subtle changes Danny’s presences was making to the future more clinically. “Moreover, she now has _positive_ emotions attached to the older halfa. This will not do. If Madeline examines her white and black view on ghosts’ nature-”

“She is more likely to discover Danny’s secret and Vlad’s in the future; I am well aware.” Clockwork interrupted firmly. He hated being condescended to. He saw as much as they did, and _more_ in fact. This is why he was sure this was the best path. He wasn’t just stuck looking at this from one angle, the effects as they worked forward with every change. He could see every being, living or not, that existed in the time stream. He could see the effects of their existence and their actions. He could see every change those might make, and every decision that might be made because of those, and so on. He could even see the changes that would have to be made assuming beings such as him, existing outside of time, intervened with the time stream. All of these existed to his eyes, shifting, shimmering into and out of view at all points now, from now on, and in the past.

“Then why do you allow the boy freedom to explore, interact with, and change the past so? How can you possibly-”

“I understand the gravity of the situation, perhaps more than you do. With Danny outside of the time stream, as a result of the Medallion, his actions have far reaching consequences, even without directly affecting himself. As well,” Clockwork said while holding up a hand to stop the Observants from interrupting, “since he is outside of the time stream, he and the actions he make are outside of your view. I know this must be,” he stopped searching for a strong enough word. “Distressing at the very least. I, however, can promise that he doesn’t stay outside of the time stream.”

“How can you be sure? With him outside of the time stream, even you cannot predict his actions fully.” The Observants’ voices had taken on that nearly panicked quality once more, as the nervously began circling the room again. “You can only see his effects, as we can. There’s no reason to assume from his current actions that he will give the Medallion back any time soon.”

“Yes, from his _current_ actions this is true. However, my ability to see all the different ways his actions can cause impressions on the time stream gives me a different perspective. There is no future I foresee where his actions now don’t cause him to end up back inside the time stream. The impressions he’s causing now, create a situation that necessitates his re-inclusion into the time stream. It all converges, the hows and whys change, but that isn’t important.”

“How can you say something so absurd? They hows and whys are all that make the time gaps that separate one future from another.” The leftmost Observant had practically grown in size with his anger. Clockwork could be so blasé at times. Did he not understand the dangers of the path Danny Phantom was currently on? He claimed to see more than them, but how _could_ he when the decisions he made, pointed unyieldingly towards greater ignorance? _But perhaps_ the universal Observant conscious thought _the ability to see more makes him that much more blind. He can barely see what’s in front of him, for the multiple never ending possibilities floating around as well._ The rightmost Observant balled his wart covered green hands with frustration. Trying to speak to the Time Guardian was, always had been, and perhaps always would be the most difficult thing about their jobs. They were forbidden by ancient oath from ever acting to affect the time stream. _Always watch, never interfere_ that was their promise. They had no choice but to go to the Time Guardian if the time stream was threatened. _He_ was under oath to protect the time stream and those in it, secondly, at all costs. It was just, _sometimes what we, the Observants, and Clockwork thinks is danger is radically different._ The collective Observant consciousness realized with consternation.

“It is not merely these things that differentiate one time, one reality, from another. How many times have I gone, at your behest, and changed something in the time stream, only to find that the result was the same? In the end, the ultimate conclusion that you were trying to avoid happened regardless. If that is the case, and you have expressed displeasure over such occurrences in the past, is it not both the conclusion and the path it took to get there important?” Clockwork let the question linger and dissipate into the buzzed angry air in between him and the Observants.

“This is true, if the result is what is meant to be avoided, but that is not always the problem.” The Observants spoke trying to rebut Clockwork’s points.

“Is that not always the problem with you? If not, then why have me stop Phantom at all?”

“It is a matter of principle!” The two all but screamed. “Even if the boy does not create serious lasting harm to the time line, even if the future continues to exist as it does now, as it was _meant_ to, a being that exists outside the time line does not need be tampering with it.” The two took turns speaking again. “It is why we do not act within the time line, and why you do only in the most extreme of times. It is not our place, as beings without, to act as those and with those within.” The turned and faced Clockwork, stern and demanding continuing as one, “If you cannot see this, then we question the wisdom of leaving you in control of the boy.”

Clockwork felt a little of his agitation slip through. He shifted seamlessly from his elder self to his middle form. “If you had any reticence over me watching a mere child, then perhaps I am not the best choice for the position I currently hold.” He watched as their Observants narrowed their large eye at the accusation. It was no longer just an indictment of his ability, but of theirs as well.

“You are more than capable of carrying out your position and its duties,” the leftmost started, “if only you would relinquish your irrational emotional concern over this Phantom creature.” The rightmost finished the other Observant’s statement. “He should have been eliminated already. Him and the older halfa. Their very presence causes ripples of upset in the time stream. Their existence is like some force constantly nudging the proper course this way and that. They are not only unnatural, but they create energy. And worse, it looks like-”

“That’s only one possibility of many. If it does come to pass, I’ll be sure to intervene. A future with…more than Danny Phantom and Vlad Plasmius in it is far too unstable and unpredictable to allow.”

“This future used to be obscure.” The Observants started again with barely the hesitance needed to let Clockwork finish he last sentence. “It was but a small echo of what might have been. It was bright but then faded off into non-existence. But now, because of the actions of Danny Phantom in the past, it’s becoming more and more likely.”

“I’m well aware that the young Phantom’s actions are causing ghosts of the former future to ripple though the time stream.” Clockwork held up a finger when the rightmost Observant looked ready to interrupt. “However, I’ve already promised to intervene in the event that this future, these shadows, becomes the serious path of the time stream. Right now, they are but small ripples of possibility. You worry too much.” _Or perhaps too much about the wrong thing._

The Observants narrowed their eye at Clockwork before the leftmost spoke. “And what of the older half-breed? Even if Danny Phantom’s current escapades into the past are fruitless, there’s him to worry about.”

Clockwork raised a question brow before replying, “To what do you refer?”

The Observants huffed before continuing as one, “Even if Danny Phantom is unsuccessful, halfas have proven to be untrustworthy. The Plasmius creature has broken numerous rules in the past, and upset the balance of power in the ghost zone. Worse, these creatures only grow more powerful with time. We aren’t even sure what will happen when these ghost creature’s human halves die, or if they ever will!” They finished with a gesture, exaggerating the problem by waving their arms around with worry.

Clockwork settled his features into a small frown. It was true Vlad Plasmius wasn’t setting the best example for halfa behavior, but it wasn’t something inherent. _A concept I intend to demonstrate directly._ Clockwork mused. With a little patience and some help, he was sure he could completely convince the Observants of the variability of hybrid nature equaled that of human beings. “While I appreciate your concerns, and know you will bring up Plasmius on the appropriate charges for his actions, I must remind you that his actions are not Phantom’s.”

“They are but an example of what is to come. Danny Phantom is nearly destined to walk the path of destruction, just as Plasmius has. Only worse, this halfa will have guidance and even more power with which to do it.”

“That future is but one-”

“These creatures need to be eliminated Clockwork! They only cause more trouble than they are worth keeping around. The very fate of reality is in these creatures’ hands. With the powers of a ghost-”

“Yes and with the free un-obsessive nature of a human being, and the unique ability to keep gaining power, they pose a new problem on the time stream.” Clockwork firmly interrupted. “However, they are beings inside the time stream; I cannot in good conscious-”

“You can and you will!” The Observants screamed back.

Clockwork frowned openly this time. He wasn’t going to be drawn into another argument about the safety and rationality of having ghost hybrids in the time stream. The Observants were inflexible and out of touch with the human world at times. The death, or even removal of Danny Phantom and Vlad Plasmius from the time stream would have enormous nearly fabric tearing consequences for the universe. Worse, the future would be endangered in all but a few realities because of it. They _needed_ to stay in the timeline, because like every other being that exists naturally inside of time, they were needed for it to be stable. _Stubborn fools_.

“Just look at what Vlad Plasmius has created,” The Observants waved a hand in front of Clockwork’s viewing screen, temporarily broadcasting the sight from their collective minds onto the screen. A still image of Danni flashed onto the screen white haired and green eyed, in her ghost form. “Even if the creature is unstable, her existence has caused significant changes to the path of the time stream. He has created life, as imperfect as it is, and-”

“What would you have me do? Destroy her as well?”

“That would not be necessary, if you removed Plasmius himself permanently from the flow of time.” The Observants lowered their hands, and the screen returned to swirling green energy. “When he disappears, so does all of his influences in the time stream. And so would the female halfa clone.”

Clockwork didn’t respond. He knew it was nearly impossible to defend Vlad’s actions, especially as of late. He was taking more drastic and intrusive actions as time went on, either to gain power or control over everything around him. An immediate future, one that was very likely until Danny began his work in the past, involved him freeing a criminal of the Observants. If they didn’t wish him dead before then, they’d be sure to do so afterwards. Now, however, like many things in the time stream, it was shimmering and shifting with uncertainty. The ghosts of a former future echoing through the view. “And what of the young Phantom? What has he done to deserve your ire that I have not expressly allowed?”

The Observants paused, looking through recent memory after absorbing Clockwork’s stipulation. “It matters not.” The two of them concluded after a moment’s pause for thought. “He has more than proven to be dangerous given the right circumstances. And we have no reason to believe those are the only conditions under which Danny Phantom would turn evil. It’s practically in his DNA.” The Observants accidently displayed their thoughts on the view screen. Flashes of Vlad and the alternate twisted future Danny flickered to life on the screen. “We cannot allow such a creature to roam freely in the past. Even if he had the best of intentions, and we can scarcely believe such a creature does, he does not have the foresight needed to mitigate his actions.”

Clockwork closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He knew a way to convince them of Danny’s goodness, of his ability to actually chose and not be subject to the general rules that governed ghosts, if only he could convince them to let this foray into the past go for just a little while longer. “What if I gave him a test?”

“What kind of test?” The rightmost Observant asked.

“A test, of his ability to choose right from wrong, a test to see the quality of his worth.”

“Have you not already tested his ability? You allowed him to fight former future self in an attempt to prevent his creation. He failed, or would have, had you not intervened.” The Observants’ eyes narrowed, they hadn’t known about the intervention until well after it was over. They could not see Clockworks actions in the time stream, any more than he could. But his unique ability to control the flow of time in the area around him allowed him to avoid their eyes when he stopped time for _Phantom_. He prevented the death of Phantom’s family, not the halfa himself. As such, there was really no way of knowing what the ghost would have done. That was the bad thing about interfering. Their influence was like a spreading taint. Even small intrusions left waves instead of ripples in the flow of time. There was no way of ever knowing now what Phantom would have done, even to Clockwork’s eyes, it was forever muddled with the wavering shine of a being outside of time’s influence.

“This time I will not interfere. The decisions will be all his own. No matter the consequences for him, unless the time stream is in danger, he will bare them without my help or guidance. Is there no better way to see what kind of nature he has, than to allow him to freely express it?”

The Observants glared their eyes at Clockwork’s form. He was right after all, but it didn’t mean they agreed with it. If Phantom got too out of hand, the damage would only be reversed by removing him from the time line. And that was only if the shift in the flow of time wasn’t too large to change without lengthy further ripples through the fabric of reality. It was all very risky, but it would finally be proof that Phantom was no threat, something they deeply longed for to assuage the constant worry the halfa caused. “Only if you swear, under no uncertain terms, that you will do whatever is necessary to preserve the strength of the time stream. If Phantom threatens it, you will eliminate him. No hesitation.” The Observants demanded.

Clockwork silently let out a breath he had been holding for the last few minutes. It was lucky ghosts didn’t actually need to breathe. He hadn’t been sure that would work. He didn’t want to have to reveal any more, and he would have had to had they not agreed then. A calm smile spread over his face. “Agreed. If he becomes a threat to the time stream, I will fulfill my duties as its guardian.” _How I chose to do so, is at my own discretion though._ Clockwork thought mischievously.

The Observants said no more, and instead took their leave. They silently floated over to the door, and practically slammed it behind them. They hadn’t been happy with what they agreed to, and they weren’t even sure how Clockwork always managed to convince them to go along with such plans.

Clockwork drifted back to the swirling mass of green that took up his viewing screen. He raised his staff and forced the viewing screen to life. The picture settled into the clear images typical of his observation before falling apart into fuzziness. He rubbed his temple with the palm of his hand, as the echoes of the obscure future turned into loud booms and flashes of bright images in his mind. Every flash or sound muddled the picture on the screen with translucent images and echoed sounds from another time. He sighed when the interference became too much to work through, and shut down the viewing screen. Danny knew what he was doing, he just hoped he did. _I’ve given you all the help I can Danny, the rest is up to you._                            


	6. If the Devil Knows Your Secret…

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A fight, a discovery, a loss.

_If the tension was any thicker in here, it would be visible. Geez, what am I supposed to do? Apologize for being honest?_ Danny worried. The last two days since the fight on Wednesday had been bearable. Vlad had, blessedly, gone back to work. With him spending nearly the entire day on the job, and Danny doing his damndest to avoid him, they hadn’t said more than a sentence or two to each other since then. Unfortunately, today was Saturday, and for some reason Vlad had the day off, when he said he worked Saturdays. So, now he was sitting across from him on the second piece of furniture around the living room coffee table. Reading a newspaper, and practically glaring a hole into it. Danny glanced nervously across the table once more, wondering what Vlad was thinking about.

Vlad resisted the urge to hiss out loud. The newspaper he was currently half reading, half glaring at, was turned to the current events page. There were two fatal, but baffling, attacks on humans in the Amity park area over the last two days. Three more attacks had resulted in hospitalization, but they all had the same odd symptoms in common, extreme fatigue resulting in cardiac and respiratory arrest, and incredibly slow metabolisms. Their bodies seemed to be producing little to no energy, resulting in massive cell death. The poor victims currently in the hospital were fighting increasingly necrotized areas of flesh and gangrene. If the wave of cell death didn’t kill them, the resulting infections would. Vlad growled at the newspaper when it quoted one of the confused doctors, worried it was some kind of highly infectious agent. He knew exactly what the causes of the deaths were and bacteria and viruses weren’t it. _Damn that vampire._  
  
It wasn’t as if Dracul even needed the energy at this point. He just enjoyed causing suffering and pain in others. More importantly, he liked, and was nearly addicted to, the sensation of draining others of their energy. So even if he didn’t need the strength, he would continue the attacks just the same.  
  
Vlad closed his eyes as another pang of anger sliced through his self imposed cool. This was all his fault, indirectly as it was. If he had been more careful about his relationship with the ghost, maybe more deferential and punctual at the very least, this wouldn’t be happening now. He felt Danny look up for the second time in the last minute. Vlad sighed. He was no longer angry at the boy; it had faded nearly immediately after the argument. But his enforced silence and heavy looks at the morning surely weren’t reassuring him. He set the paper down, carefully folding it into his lap. “Daniel?” He tried to make his voice sound light and calm. The exact opposite of what he was feeling at the moment. He didn’t need the boy blaming himself for the sour mood he was in.  
  
Danny started as Vlad addressed him for the first time that morning. _For the first time by name since the argument actually._ Danny noted with surprise. “Yeah?” He was tentative. He could have sworn just a second ago Vlad was acting like he could burn a hole in him with only his eyes. Danny suppressed a shudder when he remembered Vlad could make ecto-blasts with his eyes. Ok, maybe Vlad could do that at some point in the future, but he was sure he would have done so by now if he could.  
  
“I…” What had he wanted actually? To apologize? Not really, Daniel was the one who needed to be apologizing, even if he was no longer angry and had forgiven him. _Though I suppose I owe him an apology for calling him a coward._ Vlad crossed his legs and reached for the now cold tea on the table. He grimaced when he realized he couldn’t just re-heat it as usual with Danny still there, and was stuck with cold tea. A took a sip to center himself, and decided to just plunge forward with the apology; he did deserve it after all. “I wanted to apologize for calling you a coward. It really wasn’t my place. I have…certain training in dealing with ghosts, and I’m sure that was the first time you saw one, let alone had one attack you. I shouldn’t have expected you to act any differently. And it’s not like you just ran off, even if I didn’t believe you before, I really do think you went to go get Jack.” _Well that last part is stretching the truth some, but still._  
  
Danny could only blink in response. He had been expecting everything from more anger to the vague parental disappointment Vlad seemed able to guilt him with, but not an apology. “Oh well,” he floundered, “t-thanks. I mean I hadn’t really expected you to apologize because you were basically right, but thank you.” Danny fidgeted in his seat; he really needed to apologize back. For…well a lot of things, but first and foremost for calling him crazy. _Why does this Vlad have to be so **nice**? Why can’t he just be old and bitter and **evil**? It would make my life so much **easier**._ Danny thought ruefully. “I wanted to, um, apologize too.”  
  
Vlad raised an eyebrow at Danny from across the table. He hadn’t really expected the boy to come out of his self-absorbed teenaged shell and apologize to him, much as he deserved one.  
  
“What I mean is,” Danny started having seen the look Vlad was giving him, “I really should understand what it’s like to want a family. I wasn’t joking about my parents being dead.” Danny adopted a pensive look as he remembered the lie he had told, one way too close to his own fears for comfort. “My foster father isn’t much of a dad, so I don’t really have anyone anymore. I guess what I’m saying is, I’m sorry I called you crazy. You didn’t deserve that.” _But you still need to get a life, one that doesn’t involve my mother._ Danny added internally.  
  
“Thank you Daniel. I know you didn’t really mean it; you never acted like it. Everyone says things they don’t mean in anger, and I’m not immune. How about this? We forget all about that argument and chalk it up to the stress of the day?”  
  
Here Vlad was basically offering Danny a get out of jail free card for saying everything he had been meaning to tell his Vlad in the future. He did actually mean most of that argument, especially the part about his mom and dad, but Vlad was obviously willing to bury the hatchet. _More importantly,_ Danny thought, _I need to get back on his good side to make him listen later. Wow. When did I get so manipulative?_ Danny contemplated. “Deal.” Danny said with only a second of hesitation. _This is for the good of everyone, not like Vlad’s manipulative crap._ Danny justified.  
  
“Good, because I really don’t like living in a house with all this tension. I have enough stress at my job without more at my home.” Vlad grabbed his cup and a plate from the table and headed for the kitchen.  
  
“Where do you work anyway? I mean I know you said you worked in Sparrowslock, but what do you do there?” Danny watched Vlad start on washing the couple of dishes they had just used. “And why in the world do you wash the dishes right after using them?”  
  
“To answer your first question, I’m making some use out of my college education. I’m working as a researcher in a small company there. They needed more chemists, and I got a job.” Vlad paused to dry off the two dishes. “As for your second, I like things to be tidy and in place. Cleaning up as I go makes that easier, especially since I work such, interesting hours.” Vlad placed the dishes back up into the sparse cupboards and headed back towards the living room.  
  
Danny scrunched up his nose at the thought of cleaning. He really wasn’t fond of the stuff, and frankly couldn’t imagine wanting stuff clean enough to do it several times a day. His room back home was practically a mine field of old pizza boxes, dirty clothes, misplaced items, and his parents ghost hunting supplies. And it wasn’t like he didn’t come by the clutter honestly; his parents’ basement/lab was just as bad, if not worse, than anything his room could come up with. Cluttered with weapons, designs for weapons, dust, dirt, and wiring, Danny had been convinced all labs looked that bad until he snuck into Vlad’s.  
  
“So little badger, how about we go shopping? Since you seem to be staying here for the foreseeable future, and eat like there’s a small singularity replacing your stomach as an organ, I’m out of food.”  
  
Danny blinked at the vaguely familiar word. “Singularity?” He asked still a little asleep. It wasn’t even 8am yet in fact. _God knows why Vlad likes to be up this early, I can barely think._  
  
Vlad chuckled at the question. “A black hole Daniel. Another name for them, though I’m surprised you haven’t heard of it, as technical as the name is. You do actually like space don’t you?”  
  
“Yes!” Danny exclaimed, defensive about his knowledge being called into question. He wasn’t good at a lot of things in school, but space knowledge was one of them. “It’s just so damn early. I don’t understand how you work before 10am.” Danny griped.  
  
Vlad hummed before responding, “I’m just a morning person, though it does help to not be a growing teenage boy anymore.” He stood from the couch to fulfill what was becoming a routine. Toss clothes out of the bedroom, listen to Daniel complain about his fashion choices, get dressed and wait by the door while the boy primped. _Though this time, he may have a good reason to primp. We should actually make it to the local mall, well what passes for a mall around here._

 

* * *

  
A few minutes of morning routine later found the two of them descending the stairs out of Vlad’s apartment.  
  
“All I’m saying is, you could let me wear something other than jeans and polos.”  
  
“Daniel, did you even take up my offer of looking through the closet?”  
  
“Wait,” Danny passed a surprised glance Vlad’s way, “you were serious about that? What happened to, ‘and don’t you dare touch my things with my permission again, or there won’t be a body to find!’?”  
  
Vlad rolled his eyes as he reached into his pants pocket for the car keys. He was about to respond, when a warm tingling distracted him. He warily scanned the area. He was sure he had just sensed a ghost. More importantly, he was almost certain about which one it was. He looked back in time to catch Daniel scanning the area like he had just been. _Interesting._ Vlad thought, filing it away in the ever-growing list of “weird things Daniel did without cause.” It, incidentally, included having near precognitive knowledge of the Fenton’s and his life, having nearly no back-story but intense emotions about it nonetheless, and random bouts of lying. He still wasn’t sure what it all meant, but he wasn’t one to give up so easily. He’d figure it out; he was a patient man. “Of course I didn’t mean that about the closet Daniel. You are more than welcome to try on anything in there, but knowing you, you’d say it was all ‘lame’ or something.” Vlad slammed the door to the driver’s side as another tingle slid up his spine. _You had better not try anything here bastard._  
  
“Well whatever’s in there, it has to be better than this.” Danny said while gesturing to his current getup.  
  
“I mean really, I look like I belong on a golf course as a caddy, or in some fancy club with other snooty brats.” When Vlad didn’t respond, Danny shot a look his way. “You’re supposed to disagree.” Danny complained dryly.  
  
“You said it Daniel, not me.” Vlad smiled through the half hearted glare Danny was sending his way, and focused back on the road. The grocery store wasn’t very far from his house, but they were going to the mall first. As a surprise of sorts for Danny, he complained enough about the clothes he was wearing, and Vlad supposed he couldn’t keep wearing his own, ill-fitting as they were.  
  
Danny crossed his arms, and hid his ghost sense behind a cough. He wasn’t sure who it was, but some ghost was following them. It had been since they left the apartment. He was getting a sinking feeling this ghost was the same one who had attacked them at the Fenton household. _Dra-Dracul or something. Whatever, he had better not ruin my day today._ Danny turned towards the window to hide his ghost sense going off again, even as he mentally resigned himself to another fight in the past.  
  
Vlad took a turn down a country road leading farther from town. There really was no mistaking it now. Dracul had been following them for the last few minutes, and he was getting closer. He didn’t know when the psychotic monster was going to make his move, but he didn’t want to be in town when he did. They had just made it to the half way point on the impromptu escape from town, when someone appeared suddenly in the middle of the road. Luckily, there was no one else around on the road, so Vlad was able to swerve successfully.  
  
Danny’s hands braced the dash board as the car dipped and dived around the obstacle, _the person_ , Danny’s mind helpfully supplied. He hadn’t been wearing his seatbelt, and he was beginning to regret it. Danny turned around in his seat, trying to get a view of the person they had so narrowly avoided. It was nowhere to be seen. Cold icy dread slithered down his spine when he realized the person had basically just disappeared. He whipped his head back around towards Vlad when he heard the engine rev as Vlad sped up.  
  
Vlad narrowed his eyes. He hadn’t missed the disappearing act the person shaped obstacle had pulled. “Daniel, we have a bit of a problem. I think that ghost from a few days back is following us.” He pressed the accelerator harder when he felt Dracul set off his ghost sense again. He made a sharp turn down another small dirt road. “And put on your _fucking_ seat belt.” He hissed over at a stunned Danny practically landing in his lap from the turn.  
  
Danny scrambled back into his seat, recovering from the turn. He reached back and fumbled with the seat belt as they zipped down another road, and he was forced against the glass. “Slow down!” Danny complained, sure Vlad had to be going at least 90 by now.  
  
Vlad gripped the steering wheel harder. They _had_ to get out of town. They just had to. If not, more people were going to get hurt. And while he could probably scare Danny into keeping his secret if push came to shove, the more deserted the area was when the fight started the better. So he pressed the accelerator into the floor, and pushed the little car he owned as fast as it would go. He wasn’t a Nascar driver by any means, but there was no one else around, and he knew a few tricks he’d learned to impress girls back in high school. He put the car back into third, and used the transmission to slow down, so the wheels wouldn’t lock, before putting it back in fourth as he whipped onto the last road he needed to use to get out of town.  
  
“Damn it! Slow down, we are _going_ to _die_!” Danny had a death grip on the dash and his seat, legs spread as he pressed down against the front of the inside of the car, eyes wide with terror. He wasn’t sure where in the world Vlad had learned that, but he was sure they had taken the last turn still over 100 miles an hour. If he thought his own father was a bad crazy driver, Vlad was certainly convincing him otherwise. He passed a terror stricken glance at Vlad, chest heaving as he panted while his heart thumped. The car only got faster. _Has the Fruitloop completely lost his mind?_  
  
Suddenly, the road in front of them disappeared into a cloud of dust and dark smoke.  
  
Vlad narrowed his eyes, and expertly dodged the now gaping hole in the road. They were almost home free. A few more popped up in front of the car, and he was forced to slow down to have enough to time maneuver around them. Finally, they passed the town’s limits, and left the last of the buildings behind. Still, they needed a few more miles of road to make sure none of the ensuing chaos would spill over into the town.  
  
The next several miles were passed in hair raising tension. Vlad would swerve around the sudden holes in the road, and Danny would resist the urge to scream from the constant lurching of the car.  
  
Danny wasn’t the most easily shaken up, he never really got car sick, but the last several miles had him questioning if he really did want to be an astronaut. Vlad had executed some moves that would make stunt drivers impressed, and Danny was sure he could feel breakfast about to make a sudden reappearance. Just when he was about to ask Vlad for mercy- _getting blasted by that crazy ghost can’t be any worse than Vlad’s driving-_ Danny reasoned, Vlad spun the car completely around on the road. Basically parallel parking it into place on the side of the road in a single motion. Somewhere beyond the stomach lurching nausea Danny noted that he had actually used the brakes this time.  
  
“Stay. in. the. car.” Vlad gritted out firmly. Danny had to stay out of this; there was nothing else he could do to keep him safe. He could keep watch on the car, but if Danny got out and tried to…to…anything he’d be living target practice for Dracul. He opened the driver’s side door, and got out to face Dracul. He could explain everything that was about to happen later. _Assuming there is a later._ Vlad worried. Truthfully, he wasn’t fully recovered from his last fight with Dracul. The sudden increase in energy production he had placed on his core during the fight had made it harder for him to recover later. He was about at 80% power, but it really would have to do.  
  
Dracul was standing off about 20 feet away. He had been feeding on the humans around the area to regain his power. While at first, it was because humans were much safer targets than ghosts, lately it was because he enjoyed the taste of human energy. It was warm and filled with vibrancy, something spectral energy distinctly lacked. He watched with cool disinterest as Vlad exited the car. At one time, he had wanted the interesting ghostling as his apprentice. He was beginning to question what he had been thinking. Dracul wasn’t a stupid ghost. It was obvious from Vlad’s behavior earlier; he had been trying to get the fight out of the city. He must have been so blinded by Vlad’s usefulness that he ignored the ghost’s inordinate attachment to the human race. He was really useless because of it, and Dracul didn’t have the patience after their last fight to free him of the weakness. _It’s a shame. He could have been so powerful._ Dracul uncrossed his arms and waited for the other ghost to drop his human disguise. “Here we are. And I thought you would come challenge me, instead of making me seek you out.”  
  
Vlad walked to the front of the car and walked a few paces towards Dracul. He wasn’t looking forward to this fight. He was really a close combat fighter at this point, instead of using energy, but he couldn’t get too close to Dracul without losing. If Dracul got a hold of him, he was, well, boned. Vlad took up Dracul’s former stance and opted to respond before transforming. “You make me sound like a coward. Like I told you before, plenty of times, I have more important things to do than spend all of my time worrying about you.”  
  
Dracul’s mouth melded into a cruel smile. “Yes I can see that.” He said while making a vague gesture to the car behind Vlad. “You care for these human creatures for some reason. But I thought the attacks of the humans you are so irrational fond of would get your attention.”  
  
Vlad hissed as his eyes glowed red in response to Dracul. “You should have never attacked those people. They have nothing to do with your grievances with me.” Vlad stated coldly.  
  
“Quite the contrary,” Dracul bared his fangs and licked his lips, “they are entirely the reason for my grievances with you. While they taste delicious,” Dracul stopped when he heard Vlad growl low in his throat in response. “You for some reason like these human creatures, even more than our kind.” Dracul chuckled when Vlad sent a nasty glare in his direction. “No matter.” He said while turning intangible and beginning to slip through the earth. “It is a weakness I plan on exploiting fully.” Dracul stated just as his head disappeared through the concrete beneath him.  
  
Vlad felt his senses go on high alert. He wasn’t sure what Dracul’s plan of attack was, but he needed to assume Danny was in serious danger. _Just like Maddie had been last time. He has an annoying habit of using humans as shield and distractions._ Vlad carefully scanned the horizon for signs of Dracul reappearing. He still hadn’t transformed, wanting to put off what was basically the inevitable for as long as possible. Suddenly, Vlad sensed Dracul reappear directly behind him.  
  
Dracul turned intangible directly behind the car. He smirked as he lobbed a medium sized ecto-blast towards the vehicle.  
  
Vlad gasped and jumped back towards the car, transforming mid-jump. He arrived just in time to turn the whole automobile, Danny and all, intangible. He glared back at where Dracul had just been standing. The ghost had disappeared again. Vlad set up a large pink tinted shield when several more ecto-blast rained down towards the vehicle. He was basically pinned against the hood of the car, stuck holding the shield up physically instead of mentally because of the constant attacks. Worse he could practically imagine Danny hyperventilating and freaking out over all of this. _Oh what did you do today Daniel? Nothing Mr. Fenton, I just had some crazy ghost try to blast me into pieces. Oh well, an ordinary day for you then._ Vlad stopped his mental ramblings, and dived back into the car during a break in the attacks. To his surprise, Danny was calmly staring back at him across the car cabin. In fact, Vlad was nearly sure Danny had been more freaked out by the drive there than what was going on at the moment. “Daniel,” another loud blast slammed into his already cracking shield without him reinforcing it. “I know this must be difficult, but I need you to trust me little badger.” He held out his hand, and prepared to turn them both intangible and fly them out of the car when the shield broke.  
  
Danny stared back at the offered hand. _Vlad just can’t be serious._ There was no way he was going out there. It wasn’t like he was actually defenseless; he just couldn’t use his powers, which made him defenseless for all practical purposes. He would be putting his safety and life in Vlad’s hands, literally, if he took his hand at the moment. _Personally, being stuck in a car burning from an ecto-blast sounds more pleasant._ Danny noted. But he didn’t really have a choice, if the shield surrounding the car was any indication, and Clockwork’s ‘words of wisdom’ were coming back to haunt him again. Danny sighed and reached over towards Vlad. _I had better be working up the **good** quality karma for this shit._ He bit his lip as he felt the distinct tingle of intangibility travel through his body.  
  
Vlad wrapped an arm around Danny’s waist and dove through the side of the car, just as the shield protecting it broke. No sooner had it dropped, than another ecto-blast had slammed into the hood of the car. The sedan burst into flames, as the engine caught fire, and the inferno licked back towards the gas tank. Vlad barely had time to land on his feet with them both, before the car exploded; sending large chunks of burning metal their direction. He turned them both intangible as debris rained around them.  
  
High above the both of them, Dracul floated impassively. Alit with the combined glow of his own ghostly energy and the dark smoke churning fire, he was an imposing sight. He was bored with this fight already; the distraction of the human in the car detracting significantly from his opponent’s fighting ability. Dracul crossed his arms and waited. _My little pet should be done playing ‘nice’ soon enough._

Vlad set Danny down behind him and narrowed his eyes up at Dracul. The monster had nearly blown Danny into chunks with that last attack, _and_ he had only had five more payments on that car. As irrational as it was at the moment, he was actually pretty pissed that car had gotten blown up. He made an internal note to give Dracul an extra good beating for it, before flying from behind the sky choking smoke to meet his adversary in the air. “That was a bad decision Dracul.” Vlad stated as he flew through the dark oil burning smoke from below. He was greeted to the sight of a very bored looking Dracul, examining his claws.  
  
“You’ve been saying that a lot lately, but you’ve yet to demonstrate it”  
  
“Allow me to rectify that oversight.” Vlad hissed while sending a large pink ecto-blast towards Dracul.  
  
Dracul barely had time to intake breath, before the attack was upon him. A last second teleportation saved him from the scalding pain. The blast sailed uninhibited into the earth below, scotching it a charred black. He spared a glance to the sizzling ground below from his new position just to the left of Vlad. That had been way too close for comfort.  
  
Vlad sent a blast in a sweeping arc across the sky and towards Dracul’s new position.  
  
Dracul placed a quick green shield up to block the attack, and sent a green blast back in response. He watched as Vlad flew directly through the blast and quickly closed the distance. The attack caught him off guard, and a well executed kick found itself planting in his jaw.  
  
Vlad watched as his opponent flipped back through the air out of control, before sending a green blast into his chest. He winced when Dracul hit the ground. It had caused a resonating tremble to shake the surrounding area. He took a deep breath to calm his frayed nerves. He was letting his frustration get the better of him. It was the same basic reason his attacks were green now instead of pink. He needed more control; the wilder attacks weren’t going to do him any good in a fight where he needed to conserve energy. Vlad noticed Dracul struggling to get out of the crater he had sent him into with the last attack with a note of triumph. _It serves the arrogant prick right for underestimating me._ Vlad thought smugly.  
  
Dracul shook his head to clear the ringing still resounding in his ears. That last ecto-blast had been more powerful than he thought; the raw power of the green spectral energy Vlad used wasn’t unknown to him. He had just never seen Vlad attack with it before. _Better steer clear of those._ Dracul concluded with holding his aching head. He shook off the remainder of dirt on his clothes before flying right back at Vlad. The more physical the fight the better for him. It gave me more opportunity to drain energy from his enemy.  
  
Vlad dodged Dracul’s wild swipes, making sure to stay well out of grabbing distance. He was carefully leading Dracul farther away from Danny as the fight went on. The farther the better in his opinion, less chance of a stray blast, or sudden change in tactics getting Danny caught in the cross-fire. He charged and sent out three pink ecto-blasts, pushing Dracul further away from the area where Danny was standing.  
  
Dracul dodged the first two, but the last one slammed into his chest. He groaned as the blast bit into him. That was the second time the area around his core had taken a direct hit. Worse, he couldn’t get close enough to grab Vlad. His body was healing the assorted burns and wounds from the spectral energy attacks Vlad was giving off. The problem was, this sapped a lot of his strength, and concurrently, left him weaker and weaker as time passed. His opponent need not even land a solid death blow. All of the small attacks added up to a serious problem combined with his healing abilities and low stamina.  
  
Vlad was well aware of Dracul’s poor stamina. He had seen him hunt often enough to recognize the vampire liked to end fights quickly, and as physically as possible. He wasn’t going to let him get that close. All he had to drag this out and the fight was as good as his. Vlad sent another small ecto-blast at Dracul. This time it hit his left arm, stopping another poorly controlled attempt at a grab in its tracks.  
  
Dracul hissed and pressed his right arm into the wound on the upper part of his left. It wasn’t healing, that was the worst possible sign at the moment. He only stopped healing immediately from attacks when he was low on energy. If the growing dizziness he was feeling was any indication, he was fading fast. He had severely underestimated his adversary’s abilities, and was paying for it dearly. Dracul had been sure the last battle had fallen out of his favor because he was out-numbered, but it seemed the ghost he was fighting was smarter than he let on. He needed a new plan, quick. He needed…Dracul caught sight of something appearing through the finally thinning smoke of the wreckage.  
  
Danny had been warily watching the fight for the last five minutes or so. He had no idea the smoke had been blocking him from view of the fight from the air, but he was still nervous as a rabbit in a fox den. Even if Vlad was handling the fight now, there was no telling when the ruthless ghost would decide to attack him instead to get to Vlad. He shifted his feet as Dracul took another superficial wound. _Darn it, this would go much faster if Vlad would just attack him straight on._ Danny was tempted to transform and do just that. As silly as it sounded, it was hot as Hades because of the fire raging not ten feet away from him, and he wanted to get away from the middle of nowhere on the side of a dirt road. _That vampire isn’t much of a threat; this fight should have been over like 5 minutes ago._ He was basically just impatient with standing in the hot sun, while Vlad dicked around with the fight going on above him.  
  
Dracul suppressed the urge to grin at the defenseless child standing only a few feet away from the car he had destroyed. _So he was able to get the boy out safely._ Dracul silently congratulated his former ally’s ingenuity. He had hidden him in the path of the smoke, obviously thinking the fight would be over before it cleared enough for it to be a problem. He snapped his eyes back towards Vlad. With a self-assured smirk, he held out a still semi-bloody right palm towards Vlad. At the last possible second, he sent his projectile down directly towards Danny. _Let’s see you stop that one pet._  
  
Danny jumped as a bright nearly forest green blast headed directly for him. He had been sure that attack was for Vlad, now he was left staring wide eyed as the crackling energy headed directly for him. He winced, threw his hands out and…  
  
Vlad watched in stunned horror as the blast that was meant for him, should have been, _oh why isn’t it,_ meant for him rushed down towards Danny. He was way too far away to stop the blast, having moved the battle farther down the road to avoid this exact scenario. If only he had realized the smoke was clearing, if only he was faster, _if only I was -_  
  
Vlad blinked when he realized he was directly in front of Danny. He barely had time to contemplate the miracle when the same dark green blast he had seen sailing towards Danny slammed into his chest, knocking him several yards away into a long trench of disturbed dirt. _How did I?_ Vlad thought dazed.  
  
Dracul felt his eyebrows jump nearly into his hair line. _The ghostling teleported? When did he learn to do that?_ Dracul wondered with concern as he watched Vlad plow into the earth from his attack. _No matter, it seems my attack fulfilled its purpose well enough._ Dracul teleported on top of Vlad before he could react. He reached down sunk his hand directly into Vlad’s core. He had had enough of Vlad’s interference, and planned on fixing it permanently. Dracul placed a knee in Vlad’s gut to keep him in place as he began stealing energy from the still dazed Vlad.  
  
Danny watched in horrified silence as Dracul’s hand disappeared into Vlad’s chest. He wasn’t sure what the vampire’s game was but if the sharp reduction in Vlad’s ghostly aura was any indication; it wasn’t going to be good. Danny didn’t have many options left. He either transformed and stepped into the fight, or watched a dazed Vlad get sucked dry by the sadistic ghost perched on top of him. Danny’s vague worries about disrupting the time line were thrown to the wind when he heard Vlad’s pained scream. He didn’t have time for hesitation. _Besides, I’m better at leaping before looking anyway._  
  
Dracul let out of sound of pure delight as the powerful energy coming off of Vlad settled into his body. The power that circulated inside the ghost was always interesting, but now that he had his hand around Vlad’s core, Dracul could feel just how unique it was. It was nothing like anything he had ever tasted. It was blazing hot, concentrated and intense, but mostly it was strangely pure and vibrant. That last part reminded him of human energy, and for the first time since meeting Vlad, Dracul wondered if the human disguise was an act after all. He was so engrossed by the energy pouring into his body from the being beneath him; Dracul missed the battle cry sounding from behind him.  
  
Danny rushed forward and charged into Dracul, placing his shoulder squarely into the monster’s unprotected side. He watched Dracul skid to a stop on the rough dirt road, before turning to look down at Vlad.  
  
Vlad was reeling with pain. His chest felt like it was on fire, and his head as pounding. Somewhere in the back of his mind he realized he was still in a fight, but the majority of his thoughts were centered on not passing out. A wave of pain and nausea slammed through his body, and it was all he could do to just curl up in a ball and breathe through the pain. He felt a distant echo of a new ghost signature, oddly familiar, pang through his abused body, and prayed that whoever it was could hold the vampire ghost off for a minute or two.  
  
Danny was having a hell of a time keeping out of Dracul’s reach. After he had thrown the vampiric ghost from a hold a few seconds back, he realized why Vlad had been so determined to keep his distance from the ghost.  
  
Dracul could feed on energy just by touching someone.  
  
_And here I thought he had to bite people like he had done to Vlad that one time._ Danny turned intangible to avoid another hold, and used his speed to whip around for an attack on Dracul’s blind side.  
  
This would have been so much easier with his superior speed if Dracul wasn’t an expert teleporter. Dracul could combine the energy draining with his teleportation powers to appear practically right on top of Danny. The combination made movement difficult, and avoiding him even harder.  
  
Danny fired several quick small blasts into Dracul’s midsection and backed away. Danny noticed with growing concern that none of his attacks seemed to be doing any damage. _It’s like those stupid end game bosses in arcade games with like 10,000 health points._ Danny grimaced and fired an especially large blast concentrated to lime green in color.  
  
The blast caught Dracul off guard, and he went sailing uncontrollably through the air. Dracul hissed as that last attack took a few moments longer to heal than before. He didn’t have time for another ghost to wear him down at the moment. What surprised him most was that not only was this the same ghost from the last fight, but he was sure it was the same _being_ as the supposedly defenseless child a handful of seconds ago. He wasn’t sure how the child had managed it, but in an instant he had transformed from a nearly defenseless human being, to a very powerful and damnably fast ghost. Dracul hissed as another small attack stung his back. It healed immediately, but he didn’t need the draw on his energy reserves at the moment. If only the ghost wasn’t so fast…He teleported and tried another hold on the boy.  
  
Danny went intangible again, and Dracul’s hands slipped through him harmlessly. He flew out of range, and fired another medium sized blast at the ghost’s body. This one missed, but landed only a few feet from where Vlad was slowly recovering on the ground. Danny made a note to keep Vlad’s position in mind, as he dodged another swipe. The battle just kept changing directions, and even though it had barely been two minutes, Danny was getting dizzy.  
  
Dracul just kept teleporting and reappearing behind Danny. It made it practically impossible to keep him in sight, and only his distinct speed advantage was keeping him safe far.  
  
_Still, I can’t keep this up forever._ Danny realized. He’d never admit it out loud, but he was missing Vlad’s back-up at the moment. When he had faced Dracul the first time, the creature had been distracted by his anger and Vlad’s and his mom’s interference. Now, he was completely focused on getting a hold of him, and worse, super charged with even more of Vlad’s energy than before. Danny twisted out of a hold on his arm, and shrugged off the abrupt dip in his energy he knew came with Dracul’s touch. Danny put up a solid ecto-shield, needing time to think.  
  
Vlad had finally gotten his wits about him, and began taking stock of the situation. He had a good hold on the amount of injures and energy loss he had just suffered. The physical injuries were mostly superficial, with the exception of his shocked core. It was sputtering from the sudden assault from Dracul, and the high level of output he’d been requesting of it as of late. It wasn’t anywhere near recovered from that last attack, but he didn’t really have much of a choice _but_ jump back into the fray. _I don’t know how long that other ghost could hold Dracul off, and Daniel was-_ Vlad started when he realized Danny was nowhere to be seen. His head swiveled left and right, looking for where the supposedly nearly defenseless Danny had gotten. Vlad didn’t blame him if he had run off, but this was really no time for it. Vlad’s eyes were drawn inexplicably upwards, as the sounds of battle took on a more desperate note.  
  
Dracul was losing patience and strength too. The constant teleporting needed to keep up with the ghostling was sapping his powers, and he had yet to get a solid hold on the new ghost.  
  
Vlad stared in growing awe as a new thought slowly crawled its way from his subconscious to the front of his mind. _That’s…That’s Daniel._ Even as the thought had completed itself, he dismissed it almost immediately. There was just no way. There was really no way at all. Daniel was human, he knew that instinctively. The energy he gave off was solidly in the realm of the living. He breathed, he ate, he slept, and yet here he was above him fighting Dracul off with spectral energy and _flying_. The two pictures of Danny coalesced in his mind into a single conclusion, Danny was half-ghost. _Another impossibility._ He thought numbly. The power needed to make a half ghost wasn’t available everywhere, and certainly the only working, even half way, portal had been confiscated by the university after his own accident. A scream drew Vlad’s attention out of his own mind and back to the battle above.  
  
Danny had been holding out admirably against his much more experienced opponent, when he had made a fatal error. He got distracted. He glanced back towards Vlad, for only a moment, to check on him.  
  
Dracul had exploited the distraction mercilessly. He quickly got the hold he had been seeking for the entirety of the short fight, and tossed Danny into the ground.  
  
With a cry of shock, Danny had slammed into the earth, which quickly brought a cry of pain to his lips. He held his spinning head as he began lifting himself out of the crater his fall had created. He let out a strangled cry, half pain half surprise, when Dracul landed roughly on his back from above. The cry he let out next made the last two seem like keening yelps as he felt something icy cold settle into his chest.

Dracul almost moaned in delight. The younger ghost had almost the same type of energy as Vlad, only it was nearly burningly cold. It had the same pure vibrant feeling that was so addictive though, and that’s what mattered at the moment. In fact, the younger ghost’s energy was even purer if possible. It was so overwhelming he barely noticed Vlad appearing right in front of him.  
  
Vlad had looked up in time to watch Danny plummet from the sky and land in the ground across the dirt road from him.  
  
Dracul had teleported down, and was reaching inside Danny before either Vlad or Danny could react.  
  
Now, Vlad wasn’t sure how, he was in front of Dracul hands fisted in rage. He was so angry, he was literally seeing red. His hands snapped out, almost on their own, and centered themselves around Dracul’s throat. He watched, nearly detached from the intensity of his own emotions, as Dracul writhed in his grasp. Here, in his possession now, he felt Dracul trying to draw more of his energy away. The action only added fuel to the brightly raging fire in the pit of his stomach. _That he would dare to attack Daniel, to **use** him like that. _ Somewhere behind all of his rage he knew it wasn’t just from his usual protectiveness of others. Danny wasn’t just the average citizen he wanted to keep safe anymore, the ghostly glow around his form attested to that fact. He growled low and threatening as he roughly shoved his intangible hand into Dracul and _yanked_. He’d done this dozens of times already to the poor weak mindless ghosts that he fed to Dracul regularly.  
  
Dracul protested weakly, will greatly cowed under the strength of the determined mindset currently tugging at his core. Only the natural instinct of self-preservation keeping him from being killed right there and then.  
  
Vlad could feel Dracul’s will faltering under his attack. He’d just about ripped the core clean out of the psychotic creature, when he heard Danny cry out in protest. Before he could really respond, Danny was on his arm, pleading with him to stop. _To what? Spare this despicable cretin. Hardly._ Vlad felt his grip tighten around Dracul’s core nearly instinctively at this point, before another insistent tag snapped him out of his killing rage. He could hear Danny’s voice more clearly now. Terrified, pleading, and sounding much younger than he remembered it. He felt himself falling away from his previous bloodlust, and released slightly his hold on Dracul.  
  
Dracul knew an opportunity when it presented itself. Something about the younger ghost had stopped Vlad from killing him. He knew not to look the gift horse of good luck in the mouth, and sent a weak blue with green tinge ecto-blast into Vlad. It wasn’t much, but it got him away from the suddenly vicious other ghost, and it was the reprieve he needed.  
  
Vlad was thrown back foot or so from Dracul’s attack but quickly recovered. He was about to send a serious barrage of attacks Dracul’s way when a sickening wave of dizziness attacked him. He had momentarily forgotten about his own tiredness because of his anger, but now it was back in full force.  
  
Danny, looking for the world the best out of the three of them, stepped in between a currently swooning Vlad and the panting Dracul on his hands and knees on the ground. He hadn’t wanted Vlad to kill the other ghost a few moments ago, though now he was rethinking that position slightly. He still didn’t want him dead, certainly, but he would really give anything for a way to incapacitate it at the moment. _What I wouldn’t give for a Fenton thermos right now._ Danny glanced back over at Vlad as he recovered from his dizzy spell.

For a few tense seconds the trio just stared at one another and panted. Finally, Dracul stood up straight and crossed his arms. “It seems we are at a stand-still. Plasmius, this is not over. I’ll be back, much sooner than you think.” With that, Dracul faded into the wispy smoke of teleportation.  
  
Vlad and Danny shared a look of relief before collapsing onto the dirt. They were exhausted.  
  
Vlad didn’t want to break the comfortable silence they were sitting in just yet, but he had so many questions. Each one bubbled up from his center, begging to be voiced, but still he resisted. He had to ask something though, so he settled for, “Daniel are you alright?” It wasn’t exactly what he wanted to ask first, something like _how long have you been a half ghost_ tickling his mind the most, but it would have to do.  
  
Danny shifted in his spot next to Vlad in the dirt. He turned to answer when something startling finally caught his attention. Vlad didn’t look the same. That wasn’t exactly right, though, that’s what he was thinking. Danny took a moment to actually take in his appearance with growing malaise. The outfit was nearly the same, but it lacked the cape. _Where had he picked that up anyway?_ Danny wondered as he absorbed the other differences. His hair didn’t point straight up for one, and he lacked the conspicuous fangs and blue skin for another. For all intents, other than eyes that shone a bright red, _they still have pupils_ he noted; he looked a lot more like him. At least in the ‘only a color reversed version of himself‘ kind of way. It left him wondering when Vlad’s changes had happened, and more importantly if his own appearance were subject to sudden changes in the future. Danny shivered. That idea wasn’t at all pleasant, he was just getting used to being half-ghost after all.  
  
Vlad frowned when he noticed Danny didn’t look like he was going to respond. So he repeated, “Daniel are you hurt?” This time he struggled his way onto his feet, tired as a bear right before winter, and began looking him over much closer.  
  
“Oh! No. I mean not badly.” Danny shrugged off Vlad’s worried hands, and made his way to his feet as well.  
  
“Well that makes one of us.” Vlad winced as he felt his tired core pulse in protest. He really needed to transform, but they were nowhere close to the city limits, and if he was this tired in ghost form, his human half was probably practically hibernating from exhaustion. He looked tiredly towards the sky, and wished he could really just tel-The next thought hit him like thunder. _I teleported just a few minutes ago._ His sudden appearances near Danny made a lot more sense in light of the new realization. He filed away his new power for examination, and squashed the sense of accomplishment. He really didn’t have energy to waste on getting excited. “Daniel, I’m afraid we are going to have to fly home. We don’t have to worry about being seen now, but inside the city limits, I suggest staying invisible.” Vlad floated off the ground, and started off wobbly into the sky, with not even a glance behind.  
  
Danny grumbled and started after him. He might not have been as tired as Vlad, but flying at the moment, especially with the weird way his…ghost heart thingy, was pulsing didn’t make him comfortable. He squashed down the complaint trying to come to his lips. If he was feeling this crappy, there was no telling how bad Vlad felt. “How far out are we?” Danny hoped the answer was close, but at this point it didn’t really matter how close.  
  
“Far enough to make the next 10 minutes miserable.” Vlad supplied before focusing on staying in the air. His weariness had nearly tripled from being in the air, and despite the questions buzzing inside his mind like a bee hive, _why why why do you exist?_ ; he didn’t voice any of them. It was taking all he had to stay airborne. _Besides, it can wait._ He reasoned.

 

* * *

  
  
Vlad floated, invisible, as a wave of some combination of anger and awe vibrated through his being. Below him was the smoldering wreckage of his apartment building, just now being put out by the local fire department. He and Danny had arrived a few minutes back to the horrible sight of the charred remains of his building, still smoking and on fire in some places. They had watched in muted emotional and physical exhaustion fueled numbness as the fire department put the last of the blaze out. It had only taken them about 15 minutes to fly back, as slowly as they were going, but it was obvious what the source of the blaze had been.  
  
_His_ energy was all over the place, layered over the rubble like a taint.  
  
Vlad closed his eyes, as he felt another burning wave of anger mixed with frustration roll through him. Even if most of the people had gotten out alright there was still a good chance people had died. The blaze had surely started abruptly, leaving them little time to escape.  
  
What was even more enraging, Dracul had no reason to waste energy like this. He had done it for the sole purpose of hurting something he thought Vlad cared about in retaliation.  
  
For the first time in his life, Vlad regretted _not_ killing something. Dracul was more than a nuisance; he was dangerous and volatile. He looked over at Danny, and watched as the boy took in the scene below him with growing horror. Vlad shook his head; they really did need to get out of here. He motioned for  Danny to follow him, and flew off towards a nice diner they could talk in discretely for the time being.  
  
Danny followed Vlad in stunned silence. He had expected the little building they shared to be in one piece when they got there. Now he was left with a vague sense of dismay as he followed Vlad away from the view of his smoldering building. He felt slightly queasy as he chased down the thoughts that had left him a moment ago. _What if everyone didn’t get out? What if some of the nice neighbors he had run into occasionally were **dead** now? Vlad doesn’t even have a possession in his name now, between the car and the apartment...God this is **my** fault. Why didn’t I just let him kill that stupid ghost? Why do I always have to be so caring? Why do I assume the best in everyone? Why, why, WHY?!_ Danny berated himself as he landed behind Vlad. He quickly followed Vlad’s example by transforming.  
  
Vlad came to a stop outside of a cozy and dingy diner in the main street of the town. He nodded to the waitress he knew on staff and took a seat at the booth in the back corner. It was secluded and dark, just what he wanted. He wasn’t sure how this conversation was going to go, but he knew it wouldn’t be all that subtle since it involved Danny. Still he needed answers.  
  
Danny sat on the opposite side of the booth, and laid his head against the table. He was more than physically tired now, he was practically expecting Clockwork to come and smite him at any minute. If he thought the interactions with Vlad and his parents were bad, he was sure being indirectly responsible for the deaths of other people basically made him dead meat.  
  
The waitress brought them two cups of coffee, and started prattling off about their specials for the day.  
  
Luckily, Vlad was more coherent than Danny at the moment, and waved her off with some modicum of manners, feigning needing time to decide.  
  
Vlad calmly interlaced his fingers on the table, before looking back up at Danny. “So Daniel, is there anything you’d like to share with me?” He knew this conversation wasn’t likely to end polite, but he could at least start it off that way.  
  
“Not really.” Danny mumbled around the rim to the teacup holding the too strong diner coffee.  
  
“Then allow me to re-phrase, is there anything I deserve to know?” When Danny looked about ready to ignore that request, Vlad decided to be more direct. “I’m sick of beating around the bush Daniel. You _owe_ me _damn it_. If not for sheltering you from everything with the Fentons and real life, then for just a few minutes ago. You might not really appreciate it at the moment, but I saved your ass a few minutes ago, so pony up some answers kid.”  
  
Danny noticed Vlad only called him “kid” when he was really angry or feeling distant from him. It really wasn’t a good sign. _But I really do owe him something after all this._ Danny shifted in his seat under Vlad’s strong expectant gaze. “What do you want to know?” Hopefully this little Q &A would be over soon.  
  
“The first thing I’d like to know is where you got ghost powers.”  
  
“Yeah, not answering that.” Danny wasn’t sure about much at this point, but he knew revealing his powers origins was a definite no go at the moment.  
  
Vlad suppressed the urge the reach over and shake the answers out of the boy sitting across from him. It would get him nowhere. But his nerves were so shot from how badly this day had been going, just the thought made him feel better. “Alright Daniel, then who are your parents?”  
  
“I’m not answering that one either.”  
  
“Well you are going to answer something you little rat, or I’m going to-”  
  
“More coffee?” The waitress from before reappeared at the last second, cutting off Vlad’s threat. She paused as she took in the angry tension rolling off the two of them in furious waves. She hesitated, looking back and forth between the two of them in silence, before Vlad addressed her.  
  
“No thank you. Perhaps you could get us an order of fries though.” Vlad finished his sentenced with a raised eyebrow in Danny’s direction.  
  
Danny nodded in agreement, before sucking down more of the bitter over percolated coffee. “And a coke please, this stuff is awful.” He stuck out his tongue, and suddenly looked all of eight years old.  
  
The gesture struck Vlad, and he was reminded again that he was dealing with a teenager and not an adult. _Maybe I can bribe him with junk food, and the promise of getting snuck into an R rated movie?_ Vlad nearly laughed at the absurdity of the idea. Danny was obviously no ordinary teen, even if he looked it. Still ghost powers or not, he was only “nearly 15” as he had told them so proudly last week, so maybe it could be used to his advantage.  
  
The waitress brought the coke and a heaping plate of still sizzling fries over to the table. She waited until Vlad waved her off with the promise of more orders later, and disappeared off to go attend to other tables.  
  
Vlad smiled over at Danny as he wolfed down the fries and coke, obviously starving after the battle from earlier. “Like it? Their portions here are humongous, and on my shoestring budget, it’s a real godsend of sorts.”  
.  
Danny paused to gulp down some more coke before replying. “Yeah they’re great.” He paused before shoveling some more into his mouth. “Don’t you want some?” He winced and wondered if Vlad had the money to handle his nearly bottomless appetite of late, especially after his apartment exploding.  
  
Vlad hummed before munching, much more controlled, on a few fries. “They are fine, but I’m hungry for something different. Rhymes with ‘sensation’ ever heard of it?” Vlad pinned Danny with a hard stare as he waited for his response.  
  
Danny gulped loudly. There really wasn’t much he could tell Vlad without giving up his, basically, secret identity. Even his real name was off-limits when it came to information prying. But with everything he’d put Vlad through indirectly and directly at this point, he couldn’t wiggle his way out of the conversation. Not like the last few times, when Vlad had let him get off with unimportant life details and peripheral information. No, he needed to give Vlad something; maybe he could get Vlad to prompt the information? “Listen, I can’t tell you everything, or really much, but if you ask, I’ll tell you anything I can.” Danny looked up from the now half empty plate of fries and back at Vlad. He hoped he could implore Vlad with just his eyes to let this be for a little while longer.  
  
Vlad pursed his lips in thought. Danny was obviously trying to be helpful, he could see the need to be truthful stirring underneath his skin, but for some reason he really couldn’t tell him much. That only made him more curious though. What in the world did a 15 year old kid have to hide? _Other than ghost powers apparently._ Vlad thought sardonically. And that thought only brought up others. _Where had he gotten ghost powers? How had he gotten ghost powers? How long had he had ghost powers? Why was his family dead? Why was he hiding and running from his foster father? Did he even exist? Why, just **why** did he exist at all?_ That and more buzzed through his head, and none of those questions seemed likely to get answered here and now. Vlad munched through a few more fries, and settled on the safest sounding question he could manage at the moment. “How long have you had powers?”  
  
Danny felt himself relax minutely. Vlad couldn’t use this info to backtrack to anything else in his life. At least, he didn’t think he could. “Almost a year now.”

  
“So you got them when you were 14, and weren’t born with them?”  
  
Danny scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. _What a weird question._ “Yeah that’s right. Of course I wasn’t born with them that would be weird.” And it really would be. He couldn’t think of any way that was possible. _At least not without some seriously messed up nonsense._  
  
“I was just wondering. I know some ghosts can maintain a human form, and it would make as much sense for you to be a ghost who thought it was human than for you to be half ghost at this point.” Vlad waved away Danny’s vague worry replacing it with his nearly impersonal clinical calm. He was really in a more scientist mode than personable one at the moment, and Danny was presenting one big enigma.  
  
“Why _would_ it?” Danny wondered, getting more confused by the moment.  
  
“Well your lack of past, while still being extremely emotional about it, for one thing. Most ghosts can only dimly recall their life before death, even if their cause of death is crystal clear to them. Secondly, it would completely explain your ghost powers, with your human form only being an extension of them. However, that’s obviously not what’s going on, if you are telling the truth, which you are. By the way,” Vlad added as he finished off the last of the fries with Danny, “I completely take back all my thoughts about your cowardice. You were more than brave to help me fight Dracul twice.”  
  
“Oh well good to know you just thought I was a coward. I thought you apologized for that?”  
  
Vlad adopted a look of mock offense. “I did no such thing. I apologized for _calling_ you a coward, I never claimed to stop thinking you were one.”  
  
“You are such a jerk.” Danny swallowed down the last of his coke as the waitress came with a replacement.  
  
“Alright then next question, how did you get your powers?”  
  
“An accident.” Danny supplied.  
  
“I see. An accident where?” Vlad filed away the fact Danny had called getting his powers an accident instead of something else. It implied certain things, such as the fact he was now sure he hadn’t been experimented on, or that it wasn’t the government for another.  
  
“A lab.”  
  
“Whose?” Vlad noticed Danny getting more tight-lipped. _So this is more on the list of things you won’t answer is it?_ Vlad thought with annoyance.  
  
Danny fiddled in his seat; he couldn’t really say. “I…um…it belonged to my parents.” He hoped Vlad wouldn’t ask who they were, because he definitely couldn’t answer that.  
  
Vlad narrowed his eyes in thought, and decided to peruse another line of questioning. “So where are you from? Your hometown, where is it?”  
  
“Somewhere in this state.” Danny decided to go with evasive here. It wasn’t a lie, but it didn’t really answer Vlad’s question either.  
  
“Any way you could be more specific Daniel?” Vlad fought the urge to get demanding again. He was still talking, so there were still ways to get the information he wanted out of him.  
  
“I…not really? I can’t say a lot.”  
  
“And why is that? No wait!” Vlad interrupted Danny, “you can’t really say.” He mocked angrily. “You know, one would think you were a Russian spy or something Daniel. Why in the world are you hiding so much information?”  
  
“Listen, I just…” Danny scrubbed his hands over his face in frustration, trying to work some of his restless energy out of his system. “I just _can’t_ ok? I know this sounds crazy, but I really can’t tell a lot of anything, about much of anything.”  
  
“Or you’ll have to kill me Mr. Bond?” Vlad couldn’t help but feel stuck in a spy movie. _Something like Goldfigger, or the spy who loved me or something._ He took a deep breath, and started in on another thread surround the mystery that was Danny. “Why do you know so much about my life?”  
  
“What do you mean? I just met you.”  
  
“Yes, and in a matter of days, barely a week, you’ve managed to expertly weasel your way into my life, easily preying on my sensibilities and weaknesses like you know me, working neatly with my personality, and all while endearing yourself to me. If I didn’t know I just met you, I’d think we were family, brothers or something. It’s like you know me, like I said earlier, so why is that?”  
  
“But I don’t know you.”  
  
Vlad chuckled humorlessly. “Yes I know Daniel, that’s the point. You claim to not know me but you so obviously do. You aren’t an expert con-artist by any means, so it’s not like you are playing me and letting me fill in the details. You are far too sloppy and haphazard for that.”  
  
Danny managed to look mildly insulted and crossed his arms.  
  
“Oh stop looking like that, it’s actually a compliment, it makes you another step above sociopathic status. In any case,” Vlad said quickly moving past the point, “you obviously know me, and not just me either. You know the Fentons as well. Don’t deny it, it _is_ true. You walked through their house like you knew it, and despite not knowing how to really get to Amity, which is surprising if you came _into_ the town, you know plenty about how to navigate inside of it.”  
  
“No I don’t.”  
  
Vlad rolled his eyes at Danny’s poor attempt at denial. “Sure Daniel.” He said in the kind of voice someone uses to placate a child. “That still doesn’t explain how you knew where to find the Fentons, or even to ask them to enter using my name.”  
  
“I told you-”  
  
“Yes I know phone book, but you do realize that even if you learned my name in a phone book, it wouldn’t tell you that I knew the Fentons. So again-” Vlad sighed when he noticed Danny set his head down into the table. This was obviously hard for him, to hold back so much when he felt obligated to speak. It only made his reticence that much more confusing. _Danny is an upstanding person. He doesn’t like to hurt others, if his behavior towards Dracul is any indication. He is honest, if he could help it at all, and despite this unknown barrier separating us, he obviously trusts me. So **why**? _ Vlad was left with the same question he had been pondering for the last quarter of an hour at least. Just why. There wasn’t anything else to be said, all of it boiled down to why.  
  
Danny swallowed around the lump in his throat. He was tired, he was sure smiting was coming any second now, and he still hadn’t actually answered anything. He just had to get Vlad to understand, he couldn’t answer his questions like he wanted.  
  
Vlad reached over and swept the long part of Danny’s hair cut off the table. He gently gripped Danny’s wrist and stroked the inside of it to get Danny’s attention. “Daniel…” He waited for Danny to look away from the table top. He would try to a different tactic.  
  
Danny looked up, almost too tired to argue since Vlad had suddenly gotten so nice. The look in his eyes said a lot more than could be spoken, but mostly just patience and understanding. He wanted to take him up on that offer, truly. If he had learned anything so far, it was this Vlad was deceptively easy to talk to, and he had plenty to talk about at the moment. Danny opened his mouth to speak, and gasped when a cool blue wisp escaped his lips instead of words. He looked across the table at Vlad, now having more than memorized the energy he felt just outside the diner.  
  
Vlad stared back, taken by surprise by the ghost’s sudden appearance. Some part of him thought it couldn’t be happening, as he scanned his favorite diner for the patrons within. Not a single other person looked worried; not a single person realized what was about to happen. He had just enough time to grasp Danny’s wrist tighter before he saw the green blast heading for the window.  
  
And then there’s was a loud resonating boom, and hot searing fire, pain, pain, pain, and darkness.

 **…then better hope he can keep it.**             

 


	7. Phantom the Vampire Hunter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny and Vlad team up and a ghostly confrontation comes to a head.

He floated just out of sight of the scurrying insects below. He was hidden in the deep shadows of the night above a roof, just opposite of the burning devastation of the broken remains of the human shop he had destroyed. He snorted when he heard the distant sirens of the fire engines rushing to the scene; the humans inside would long dead by the time they got to them. _Speaking of dead and human, that reminds me of the reason for my little visit to the human shop. It seems my former associate and his new ally aren’t entirely ghost or human. Some interesting combination of both. I didn’t think it was possible for such a being to exist, but suddenly his irrational attachment to human creatures makes sense._ Dracul sighed before teleporting over to the top of the debris of the diner. _If I were him, I’d renounce all things to do with such weak beings as these humans, but then again, that **is** why he’s weak._ He waited, floating over the fires below. Vlad wasn’t one to be defeated so easily, he was sure of it.

Vlad groaned from deep inside the wreckage of the diner. His head pounded badly, plus something was digging into his spine. Something hard, rough, and stone like. His eyes fluttered open and were met with the nearly pitch black scenery of the air pocket he was in. Vlad rolled onto his side, and began trying to get a better view of where he was. Despite the distinct lack of lights, his vision was much more acute than the average human, and as he was somewhere near the top of the pile, light could still get inside the rubble.

 _What happened?_ He wondered while rubbing a particularly sore spot on his head. Suddenly, the last few minutes came flooding back into his mind, and he was hyper aware of his surroundings. The distant rumble of debris settling, the sound of sirens from the rescue vehicles, the heat from the small fires burning in the building, all of it was assaulting his now too focused senses. “Daniel?” His call came out as a tired rasp. He coughed and crawled through the rumble until he reached a stone slab. “Daniel, can you hear me?” His voice echoed in the small space around him. Nothing.  
  
Danny had been thrown deeper into the collapsed building than Vlad. He was pinned under a thick piece of the concrete ceiling, right next to a growing fire. He slowly drifted back into consciousness, ears ringing from the explosion.  Danny tried to move from his prone position under the concrete, only to find himself unable. Snapping to full consciousness in a few moments, he began pressing his hands against the concrete pinning him. When the solution came to mind, he nearly hit his forehead with how obvious it was. He took a deep breath, and phased through the concrete. Now free from the slab, he began looking around the area. His legs were still sore from the concrete landing on them, and he silently thanked his half-ghost status for protecting him from further damage. Danny started when a familiar sound reached his ears. “Vlad?”  
  
Vlad pressed himself against the other side of the rocky barrier keeping them apart. “Daniel is that you?”   
  
“Yeah.” Danny trailed off as he really took in his surroundings. “What happened?” Danny reached through the solid rock wall, feeling for Vlad on the other side.  
  
“The kitchen exploded. You _are_ alright aren’t you?” Vlad’s answer came in the form of Danny’s arm reaching through to his side of the obstruction. “Hold on, I’ll come to you. There’s no room for you over here.” Vlad shoved Danny’s arm away, and phased through the wall before Danny could respond. He was met with the dirt smudged Danny on the other side.  
  
Danny rubbed the back of his head. Not only did it hurt back there, but he was feeling awkward. Now more than convinced everything that was happening to Vlad was his fault, he was beginning to feel slightly guilty. “So, what do we do?”  
  
“I’d suggest looking for survivors, but considering the mess in here, the fire, and the explosion, I doubt anyone else survived.”  
  
“But we sho-“   
  
“We have more important things to worry about Daniel.” Vlad pointed above him, cutting off Danny’s objections. “Does that energy on the roof seem familiar to you?”  
  
Danny closed his eyes, and ignored the heat itching down his back. The fumes from the fire and burning gas were distracting, but the cold tingle from the ghost on the roof was unmistakable. “Not him.”  
  
Vlad frowned and sent a heated glare into the roof, or what was left of it, above him. “Come on Daniel, let’s reappear around the back. The fight from earlier has obviously restarted.” Vlad quickly transformed in a flash of black light, and motioned for Danny to follow.   
  
Danny followed suit, and the two of them were floating through the remains of the ceiling, up and towards the rear of the former building. They were inside the smoke from the fires at first, so everything was a blurry wavy swirl of colors and sound. He was suddenly glad he didn’t have to breathe in ghost form, because all that smoke would make it impossible. He joined Vlad shoulder to shoulder in the air.  
  
On the opposite side of where they were floating, just a few feet away, was Dracul in all of his wicked glory. He leveled an evil leer at Danny and Vlad, happy they had finally decided to join him in the air. From the looks on their faces, they were mostly unscathed from the collapsed building, but nowhere near as energized as him. Not for the first time, Dracul thanked his vampiric abilities. Even with his opponents’ unusual bodies and cores, they were running on empty. “I was wondering when you two would stop lurking with the riff-raff and come and face me. Why is it I always have to come find you?” Dracul enjoyed the darkening of the younger ghosts’ faces as he implied cowardice.  
  
“And here I was left with the impression you were going to crawl into some hole and die the last time we fought. My mistake Dracul: I thought _you_ were the one who ran from our last battle.” Vlad wasn’t about to be baited into attacking so easily. They were still in the most densely populated part of the town, and since Dracul had no prohibition against collateral damage, he had to keep in mind their surroundings. They couldn’t fight here if he wanted to avoid more casualties.  
  
Dracul’s face fell into a frown as he took in Vlad’s words. He had been sure the hot headed younger ghost, at least one of them, would have rushed into the fight. It wasn’t as if the insult was particularly stinging, but after killing some of those humans they liked so much, he had been sure they would be itching to throw punches. Now it seemed, they were more wary than anything else, and Dracul was left wondering where he had misjudged them. _Perhaps they are more injured or low on energy than I thought._ “A tactful retreat is not running.”  
  
“Oh yeah? Because it looked an awful lot like you had your tail between your legs when you left.” Danny was sick of this ghost. If showing up to threaten his family before had been bad, after attacking them earlier, burning down Vlad’s apartment, and destroying the diner, this ghost had just jumped to number 1 on Danny’s most hated list. He had even passed Vlad, and that took some serious skill.  
  
“Perhaps to you, child, but to a more experienced fighter the difference is apparent. For example, it has allowed me to gain the strength needed to fight you once more. But energy is something you interesting creatures have in spades is it not?” Dracul’s leer grew into a smirk at the surprise flitting across their faces. He floated away from the smoke of the diner fire; he wanted to see every fear filled line on their faces. “You aren’t actually a ghost in disguise are you Plasmius? That human shell, it’s real flesh and bones. Somehow, you have managed to be both living and dead at the same time. What an odd paradox.” Dracul said the last sentence in a near mumble, more to himself than either Danny or Vlad.  
  
Vlad resisted the urge to shift nervously floating across from the vampire ghost. He narrowed his eyes at the being floating across from him and started to gather his energy for the coming fight. He had taken serious pains to avoid his secret being discovered. Now, it seemed it was all for naught.  
  
Dracul knew anyway, and worse, he was the kind of ghost to spread the information around if he thought it would be to his advantage. And this would be to his advantage, after all, how often did one find what amounted to a fatal weakness in someone seeking to become powerful as Vlad did?  
  
“Whether my human form is a shell or not won’t be any concern of yours in a few hours. Why would it be, when you’ll be nothing but an indistinguishable smear of ectoplasm on the sidewalk soon enough?”  
  
“Such big talk from an inferior creature. Alright little ghost, I was going to keep you as an interesting pet for my lair back in the Ghost Zone, but I wouldn’t want to deal with your mouth for the rest of eternity. This, and you, ends tonight.” Dracul gathered a large dark green pool of spectral energy in his hand.  
  
“Daniel,” Vlad addressed the previously ignored teen floating beside him, “stay out of this.”  
  
“What?! No way. I’m helping you fight, and more importantly, there’s no way you can take him on alone. Between the two of us-” Danny was cut off when the large blast Dracul has been gathering was thrown their way.  
  
“You will get yourself killed.” Vlad said into the now much larger space between them after dodging Dracul’s attack.  
  
“I will not! Let me help, I fight ghosts all the time back home.” Danny flew around another forest green blast from Dracul, and sent one back.  
  
It hit its mark, slamming him into the rooftop of a building across the street. Several pedestrians began running away from the chunks of falling concrete. Between the suddenly-turned rubble diner and the flashes of green in the sky, they were more than ready to leave the immediate area. A couple police spot lights swiveled up towards where the two halfas were floating, searching the growing smoke filled sky for the source of the green light.  
  
Dracul pulled himself from the crater on the roof, shaking his head with frustration. He could take either one of them individually, but together, they would be a problem. He had to find a way to separate them, or convince the stubborn individualistic ghosts to part ways willingly. Dracul dusted off his concrete powdered cape, and teleported back into the air in front of them. “Very cute Plasmius, you have your new ally attack for you. I did not know you were the kind to hide behind children.”  
  
“Hardly.” Vlad hissed back at him. He flew in front of Danny and sent him a fierce glare. “Leave.” He wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer here, why couldn’t the kid just disappear? He could turn invisible; why not make use of it for once?  
  
He smirked at how easy it was to manipulate the younger ghost’s pride. He had to admit though, not all of it was pride, Vlad was a protective being, and he likely didn’t want to put the other hybrid creature in any danger. Still, the end result was the same, the two of them separated, where he could deal with them easily.    
  
“I’m not going anywhere. If you want to get rid of me, you’ll have two people to fight instead of one.” There was no way he could let Vlad face this ghost by himself. Ordinarily, Danny was sure Vlad was more than capable of handling this fight. But he was tired from the last two fights with the evil specter, and worse, he had been injured, or at least Danny thought he had, in the last fight. Vlad was a good fighter, but he wasn’t invincible, and the fight a few hours back had cinched it for him.  
  
Vlad dropped into a fighting stance and sent a fiery glare over his shoulder at Danny. “Damn it, would you just listen to me? If we are both fighting him, who’s going to make sure no one else gets hurt? Who’s going to help get the people _still_ trapped in that diner get out safely?”  
  
“I don’t know the fire fighters or something. Listen, you need my help and whether you want it or not, you’re getting it.” Danny crossed his arms and flew over to join Vlad in the face off with Dracul. He hadn’t run from a fight as long as he had powers, and he wasn’t going to be run off from this one.  
  
“Enough talk, I have wasted enough of my time on you creatures. If you both are done trying to convince the other to be a coward, I would like to kill you both if you do not mind.” Dracul held out two bright green glowing hands on either side of his body, and charged the ecto-blasts within to a dark green.      
  
Before Vlad could get in another protest, he was dodging a blast that zipped and crackled right past his head. He sent a return attack Dracul’s way, and watched as the vampire raised a shield with his mind, and fired the second blast at Danny.  
  
Danny deftly avoided the attack, and charged directly at his opponent.  
  
Dracul nearly laughed at the boldness of his adversary. It was almost as if the boy had forgotten he had a shield up, or that he could drain him of his powers if he touched him. _No matter,_ _his folly is my gain._ Dracul reflected calmly as Danny started to whirl around him like an electron around an atomic nucleus.  
  
Danny sent several small blasts into Dracul’s shield to test its strength. When the first few seemed to have no effect, he realized Dracul was reinforcing it with his energy and smirked.  
  
The energy vampire was very wasteful with his powers, likely stemming from the fact he could always steal more. The constant draw on his energy, when he couldn’t just make more like the two halfas, combined with his very poor stamina to make him an easy target for being worn down.  
  
Danny just had to stay out of reach and keep peppering him with blasts, and the shield would fall when Dracul ran out of energy. _And if the last fight is any experience, it’ll be sooner rather than later._  
  
Vlad flew up next to Danny and got his attention with a wave. The two soundlessly broke off from flying around Dracul and floated a few yards away.  
  
Dracul’s shield was still up, though now he was more suspicious than ever. He had been expecting the two of them to be fighting each other by now, if they were even in the same area. However, it seemed the two hybrids were coordinating, and that spelled trouble for his ‘divide and conquer’ plan. He decided to end their little meeting immediately.  
  
“That’s an awful idea Daniel.”  
  
“No it’ll totally-”  
  
“No it won’t.” Vlad firmly interrupted. He had gotten Danny away to take up his offer to work together, though it seemed both of their fighting styles didn’t really lend themselves to a partner.  
  
“Well what do you suggest?” Danny was more than a little exasperated at the moment. His plan, basically punch Dracul till one of them got tired and then switching off, would work just fine.  
  
Vlad opened his mouth to respond, when the dark smog of Dracul’s teleportation surrounded them.  


They quickly dived out of the area and regrouped a little ways off.  
  
“I suggest real team work, and no tag teaming isn’t what I call real team work.” Vlad made a sour face as the smog re-directed towards them again. “Do me a favor kid, and keep him busy for about ten seconds; I’ll give you the signal when I’m ready.”  
  
_Great it’s back to the kid thing again._ “Well hurry up.” Danny said while squaring up against Dracul’s quickly reforming body. “I don’t want to do all the work.” Danny ready himself into a mid-air crouch to fight Dracul as Vlad flew off.  
  
He needed cordon off the area. It had the added bonus of allowing him to watch Danny’s fighting style so he could avoid getting in his way when they fought together. But first, he had some local citizens to scare off…  
  
Danny kept well out of Dracul’s reach, remembering the feeling of his energy being drained from the last fight only a few hours back. He still hadn’t recovered, despite the fact he hadn’t used a lot of energy over the last nearly week he’d been here. The energy he’d lost to Dracul from the sudden hand holds he had gotten had, unusually, yet to return. He didn’t typically have trouble making more energy, and quickly, but this time he seemed to be on the slow end of the scale. Danny distantly wondered if the vampire reaching into his still sore chest hours ago had something to do with it, as he dodged another grappling attempt by the other ghost.  
  
Dracul hissed in annoyance, the fight already going how he remembered the last one did. That was completely unacceptable. He fired a green blast at the younger ghost, only this one was made of soft ectoplasm.  
  
The attack crashed into Danny, and the green ectoplasm stuck to his body like glue. It had only gotten one arm, but the distraction it provided in his attempts to get it off, nearly got him captured. Danny turned intangible at the last second, and phased through Dracul’s well aimed swipe. He flew out of reach and reset his position against Dracul. _I can’t fight him by myself, where the heck is-_  
  
“Daniel!”  
  
A loud call cut off his thoughts and drew his attention downward.   
  
Vlad was standing by a parked car, looking distinctly mischievous. “Do you remember that ‘game’ you told me about on the last drive over to the Fenton’s?”   
  
“I’m a little busy at the moment; I’ll play something with you later.” Danny griped and phased through another too close grab for a limb.   
  
“Why don’t we play now?” Vlad offered while lifting a vintage Volkswagen bug off of the pavement with a grunt.   
  
Danny’s eyes lit up when he caught Vlad’s meaning and flew around to line up parallel to him. He watched as Dracul dove down to catch up to him, ready to make another swipe, before turning intangible. Dracul’s angry swiped missed him by metaphorical miles, before he charged an ecto-blast in his left hand and fired it directly into the vampire ghost’s gut.  
  
Dracul hurled across the street, sailing from the blast, and lined up perfectly for what Vlad did next.  
  
“Punch buggy.” Vlad said while swinging the car straight into Dracul’s flying body.  
  
Dracul smacked into the top of the car and shot back towards Danny.  
  
Danny shifted positions, floating parallel to the ground instead of upright, and shoved his feet into Dracul’s unprotected gut.  
  
Dracul once again changed directions, shooting up directly into the sky above the town.  
  
To Danny’s utter surprise, and a small amount of awe, Vlad teleported above Dracul, half-crushed car and all.  
  
He repositioned his hold on the car’s chassis, holding it by the middle instead of the front axels, before swinging it down into the still careening Dracul. Following the movement of his down-swing, he tossed the car on top of Dracul’s body after the two connected. Vlad fired a cherry-bomb colored ecto-blast after the falling coupled objects, determined that the word ‘overkill’ didn’t exist in this instance.  
  
Danny quickly moved out from underneath of the falling pair and shot up to a safe distance. He dodged the bright pink ecto-blast also on its way down, and pivoted to a stop just before the whole thing hit the ground.     
  
The car slammed nose first into the earth, Dracul pinned beneath it, when the searing heat from Vlad’s supercharged ecto-blast hit the engine and gas tank in the back. It exploded into a confetti of metal parts and pluming smoke and gasoline fire.  
  
“No punch backs.” Danny condescendingly stated now floating only a few feet from Vlad after his escape from the collision course with the car. He grinned up at Vlad, more than a little excited with how well that had worked. _If we keep this up, the fight will be over in seconds._  
  
Dark smoke seeped from under the burning wreckage of the Volkswagen as Dracul teleported himself to safety. A dark chuckle rang through the air as Dracul recollected himself a few yards away from the smugly glowing halfas. “Not bad, so you two can coordinate attacks. I will have to keep that in mind.” He fully rematerialized arms calmly crossed over his chest, ready for another round of attacks.  
  
Danny had to focus to keep his face from scrunching up in anger. All of that, and Dracul still didn’t have a scratch on him?  
  
Worst of all, the vampire ghost even had the nerve to have a disturbingly calm smile on his slimy face.  
  
Danny didn’t know how at the moment, but he was going to wipe that evil grin off of Dracul if it took all night. _Maybe if I rub his face against the concrete?_ Danny considered with frustration.  
  
“I believe it is your turn for first attack, little hybrids.” Dracul exuded an air of sickly sweet patience, like the kind one would use when dealing with a particularly hard to train puppy.  
  
Vlad passed Danny a look of calm confidence before turning back to face Dracul in a fighting stance.  
  
A feeling of déjà vu flitted through his mind, the fight where _he_ had been Vlad’s opponent only a week before coming to the fore of his thoughts. _He’s always calm._ Danny echoed in thought from his memories, this time with ease to be allied with him instead of fighting him for once. He dropped into his own fighting stance, waiting for Vlad to make the first move. He didn’t have to wait long, as Vlad tossed the opening ecto-blast Dracul’s direction.   
  
Dracul easily dodged, zipping to the right of the blast, before changing direction and angling towards the two of them in flight.  
  
They dove apart, unwilling to chance being caught by the vampiric ghost, and regrouped on the retreating side of Dracul’s dive.  
  
Dracul pivoted and fired twin green blasts at Danny and Vlad.  
Vlad placed a solid square shield between the two of them and Dracul’s attack. The blasts harmlessly absorbed into the pink ecto-energy before the shield disappeared.  
  
Danny zipped around the space where Vlad’s shield had been, and fired a series of medium sized blasts at Dracul’s dodging form.  
  
Dracul hissed as a pair of blasts came perilously close to actually striking him. If the two of them kept this up, he’d be drained in a matter of minutes. A pink blast came from beneath him, nearly catching him off guard. He turned intangible to avoid it, only to become solid right when the other young ghost fired a green blast of his own. It burned his left leg, and sent him hurtling into another concrete roof. He was used to fighting one opponent at a time, or at the very least, several non-sentient animal ghosts at once. Trying to keep track of both of his crafty opponents was leaving him open to various attacks.   _This has to end immediately._ For the third time that afternoon, he seriously attempted to separate the ghost hybrids.  
  
Vlad was mostly trying to stay out of Danny’s way at the moment. He had almost gotten Danny’s fighting style down enough to interject synchronically with the younger half-ghost, but until then, Vlad was stuck snipping in ecto-blasts at their mutual opponent. _Besides, Daniel is firing enough for the both of us._ He noted in amusement.  
  
Danny fired another volley of green ecto-blasts at the vampire ghost. More than satisfied at the various grunts and cries the burning energy brought to the evil ghost’s lips. He wanted this battle to be over and done with. It may have only been late afternoon, but he was tired in more ways than one.        
  
Vlad flew next to Danny after the next set of ecto-blasts slammed into a blind-sided Dracul. “Daniel, while I’m sure you could do this all day, how about we finish this ghost off? You take the lead attack, and I’ll follow.” Vlad offered.  
  
Danny fired one more angry bright green attack into a recovering Dracul, before skittering to a stop next to Vlad. “Alright, just don’t get in my way.” He glared down at Dracul, suddenly getting an idea. Danny flew down towards him, ready to enact his hastily made plan.  
  
Dracul gripped his sore left side. It had taken a significant portion of the pummeling the last few minutes, and was leaking ectoplasm in a slow pulse with his core. He consciously focused some of his waning energy into his aching side, willing it to heal faster. He didn’t have time to be bleeding and losing more energy during this fight. The youngest ghost had proven to be a formidable adversary on his own, especially since he seemed more than willing to be aggressive now. His body had just finished healing, when he felt a vicious tug at the hem of his cape.  
  
Danny bunched the material in his hands as he wrenched the vampire ghost into a slow circle. He followed the movement, turning the both of them in ever speeding circles. After a few more seconds to gain, what he felt was, adequate speed, Danny tossed Dracul up towards the last place he saw Vlad.  
  
Vlad smirked as the wildly sailing ghost came right towards him. He moved at the last second, catching Dracul across the throat with a ‘clothes line’.  
  
Dracul began flipping head over heel, his previously straight flight now spinning completely out of control.  
  
Danny caught up with and surpassed the speeding Dracul before he hit the opposite building. He shot ahead of him, charging an ecto-blast as he went. Finally, he stopped a few seconds’ flight away powering up his attack until it was nearly neon green in color. He let the powerful attack loose directly into the path of Dracul’s quickly falling body.  
  
Dracul screamed in agony as the hyper-charged energy burned and tossed him away from the younger ghost. Just when he had recovered enough sense to stop his flight, another nearly equally as powerful pink blast caught him in the gut, sending him well out of the area.  
  
Vlad blew the smoke from his hand as Danny joined him in the sky. “I think that might have hurt him little badger. What do you think?” He sent Danny a co-conspiratal smirk.  
  
“Oh definitely, but I don’t think he’s finished yet.” Danny glanced back towards the slightly smoking area where the blasts had sent Dracul.  
  
“I agree, so let’s finish him off and go get dinner.” Vlad nearly laughed at the silliness of the sentiment, but Dracul had downgraded in his mind from a serious threat to something easily taken care of with Daniel’s help. _Plus, neither of us got a solid lunch._ He reasoned and took off into the sky after Danny.

 

* * *

  
Dracul was seething. Here he was, one of the most powerful ghosts in the Zone, and two mere children were treating this fight like it was a game. He was nothing to joke about, he was basically the ‘boogie man’ of the Ghost Zone, but these two freak hybrids acted like he was some non-threat. Dracul groaned and hissed as he pulled himself from the self-made crater in the asphalt. His sudden arrival had sent the human insects, the few of them in the industrial park, scuttling in fear. Now he could hear the two younger ghosts practically gloating as they neared his position, and it was driving his ire to new heights. _If those little ghostlings think that’s the best I can do, they are sorely mistaken. Time to remind them why I am one of the most feared ghosts in the Zone._ Dracul turned invisible just as Vlad and Danny arrived. He could wait.   
  
Danny glanced around the slightly ruined area of the small industrial section of the town.  
  
The town industry used to be in steel production, it wasn’t uncommon in this part of the state, but now the majority of the area was barren, the focus of the production having moved to goods instead of raw materials like steel. It still left the area with a brick and burnt out feel, the warehouses and furnaces used to house and make the steel, completely empty.  
  
Danny scrunched his eyebrows in concern. Dracul was nowhere to be found, and he was sure if that large hole in the street was any indication, that the vampire ghost had fallen around here somewhere. “Where’d he go?” Danny muttered into the empty space in front of him.  
  
Vlad was wondering the same exact thing, only with much more concern. It was obvious the ghost had fallen here, so if they couldn’t see him that made Dracul invisible. _And if he’s invisible that makes him conscious, and still a threat._ Vlad was about to voice as much to Danny when the hot tingle he got when a ghost was near went down his spine. He spun around and gasped as he sensed Dracul appear right behind him.  
  
Dracul used the pairs’ over-confidence to his advantage. He was sure they would assume he was unconscious, and to his enjoyment they were finally behaving as he predicted. He regained visibility just behind the older of his opponents, prepared to grab and suck the energy right out of him. What happened next left him surprised and more frustrated than ever before.  
  
Vlad sensed the attack at the last moment, and teleported away in a cloud of pink smoke. He had done it nearly on instinct to avoid the attack, but he wasn’t about to complain now. He rematerialized next to Danny, and squared off against the vampire ghost.  
  
“When did you learn to do that?” Dracul asked between gritted teeth. The technique took some practice to learn, and it seemed as if the younger ghost had learned how to do it in minutes instead of months.  
  
“Just today actually. Funny, it looks a lot harder than it actually is.” Vlad gloated into Dracul’s increasingly enraged face.  
  
It was Danny’s turn to look annoyed. He’d been trying to figure out how to teleport, among other things he’d seen Vlad do, for months. He was beginning to assume it was something only Vlad and a few others could do naturally, like his ghostly wail, but it seemed it was actually just another normal average ghost power. The fact he was having so much trouble when Vlad had just picked it up seemingly easily grated on his pride. “Can’t be that easy…” Danny muttered under his breath.  
  
Vlad flashed him a winning smile, fit for television, before turning back to Dracul. “If you like Daniel, I can teach you after we waste this pathetic concentration of ecto-goo.”  
  
Danny made a sour face at Vlad for his obvious gloating, before turning to face Dracul again. “I’d rather have dinner like you suggested. Shall we?” Danny offered Vlad the first shot again and waited.  
  
Still not taking the fight seriously, Vlad smiled and said, “Oh no after you my boy,” hands out in a gesture of polite suggestion.  
  
Taking this as his cue, Danny turned invisible and flew below Dracul, waiting for a chance for another coordinated double team with Vlad.  
  
Dracul watched his youngest opponent disappear, and returned his attention back to Vlad. He was his serious opponent. Despite the youngest ghost’s spunk, he was a poor tactician and an even poorer physical fighter, so it left Dracul at a distinct advantage as long as he could overcome the speed differential. His teleporting ability made up for that easily, which only left the older and better fighting hybrid to worry about. If he wasn’t a problem before, Vlad’s newly found teleporting ability was going to cause him trouble. _Still,_ Dracul considered calmly, _I have a few more tricks up my sleeve._ He watched impassively as Vlad readied himself for attack.  
  
Vlad charged twin ecto-blasts in his hands and narrowed his eyes at Dracul. If he and Danny timed this right, he’d be able to end this fight in the next minute. He took a deep breath and fired the attack growing in his left hand.  
  
Dracul quickly turned intangible and teleported a ways away.  
  
Vlad fired the second shot, and teleported behind Dracul. He reappeared behind the ghost, and sent another shot at his back.  
  
Dracul raised a shield and deflected both shots back off of it, instead of absorbing it.  
  
One of the bounced shots slammed into an attacking Danny, catching him completely off guard.  
  
Dracul used the change in momentum of the fight to teleport to over to a dazed Danny. He grabbed one of Danny’s arms and pulled some of his energy, just as Vlad caught up. He teleported out of reach of Vlad, and watched them slam into each other from Vlad over-reaching. He teleported right above the two recovering ghosts, and turned intangible as the two sent blasts in his direction and separated.  
  
Vlad grimaced at the change in direction of the fight. A few seconds ago, it had looked like he and Danny had the upper hand. Now, Dracul was easily out-maneuvering them and stealing energy at the same time. Something told him Dracul hadn’t considered them serious opponents before, and was now treating them as a single threat instead of separate enemies he could fight individually or later.  
  
That was a problem for them both.  
  
Before he could warn Danny to be more mindful of his positions in the fight, Dracul attacked.  
  
He boldly teleported right between the two of them and sent two blasts, one from each hand, into both of his younger opponents’ unprotected chests. He resisted the urge to smile at the sight of their bodies flying out of control away from him. He still had some work to do defeating them; it was no time for self-congratulatory gloating. He hadn’t attempted this power in a long time, and even if he knew it would work, he needed to concentrate. He gathered the needed energy, and focused his thoughts on needing to fight both his opponents at once.  
  
Vlad was the first to recover, being larger; he had less momentum from the attack. He shook his head, and worked out the cobwebs clogging up his thoughts. _Ok, that was rather unexpected._ He looked back at Dracul in time to see his aura brighten and thicken around him. It left an unsettled pit in his stomach. _This isn’t going to end well._  
  
Danny caught himself, pulling out of the uncontrolled spin from Dracul’s attack. He leaned against one of the walls of the numerous buildings in the area, trying to get his bearings. Falling spinning through the air like that always left him disoriented. He glanced back in Dracul’s direction when he saw a bright flash. What he saw left him more annoyed than before.  
  
The crafty vampire ghost had split himself into two forms, one a duplicate of the real ghost. He hated using the technique, because it used a lot of power, something he was very poor at conserving on a good day. But, in this case, he needed the extra fighter, and seeing more than one of him always befuddled his opponents.  
  
Vlad gaped openly at the sight of the newly duplicated Dracul. Unlike Danny, he had never seen a ghost make a copy of themselves. It was an awe-inspiring and interesting technique, if only he had time to study it further…His nearly scientific musings were cut short when one of the two Draculs flew at him. He quickly recovered, jumping to the defense against the suddenly highly aggressive Dracul.  
  
He had to end the fight quickly now, or get plenty of energy from the well like hybrids, or the duplication would drain him completely. It was a rare brash move on his part, considering he preferred to keep the battle on his terms of physical combat, but he needed to keep the hybrids separated. More than that, he knew staying in one form wouldn’t shorten the battle any and that was the real problem. Dracul managed to get a hold on Danny with his duplicate, while he fought Vlad. He relished in the newly delivered power as he powered through a couple blasts meant to pin the older ghost to the ground.   
  
Danny struggled in the duplicate Dracul’s hold. While he was used to the idea of duplication, having seen Vlad perform the move several times in the future, he still wasn’t used to fighting such a physical ghost. Vlad, and most of his enemies, preferred energy attacks to brute physical force, even if he liked physical fights, Dracul’s energy draining powers made a real fist fight impossible. He was also surprised Dracul hadn’t just surrounded him with a few more duplicates to finish him off, but he had more important things to worry about at the moment, like getting out of this steely hold for example. Danny twisted hard to the right and snapped his left elbow back into Dracul.    
  
The vampire ghost let go of Danny to rub his sore gut. He had to admit the young ghost had moxie, but after that last energy drain, his aura was looking significantly dimmer. He smirked internally, and concentrated on getting another solid hand hold on the ghost hybrid.  
  
Danny phased through another swipe, and zipped away to put distance between him and Dracul. The fight was getting more and more desperate as his energy supply dwindled, and it didn’t help that Dracul was stealing it from him. He hoped Vlad was having more luck.  
  
Vlad swept his hand out in an arc, creating a solid wave of ecto-energy.  
  
The trailing half connected with the edge of Dracul’s foot, and wrapped around his limb. Dracul grunted as the pink thick energy snaked up his leg and settled onto the center of his body. He quickly tried to turn intangible to lose the binding, only to find the move completely ineffective. The energy stuck to his body like glue, and followed him through the phase shifts. With him using so much energy on holding the duplicate, he doubted he had the concentration necessary to teleport and hold the duplicate at once. Still, it was the only way to free himself, and with Vlad dive bombing his position, it was his only option. With a deep breath, Dracul began to teleport, hoping his duplicate stayed solid.  
  
Danny jumped as the duplicate flashed into and onto of existence rapidly. It finally settled back into a solid form and began attacking him again. He was wondering what the disappearing act was about when he heard Vlad let out a set of vivid curses. He was just distracted enough to miss the Dracul clone heading straight for him.   
  
Vlad watched with blood curdling anger as Dracul teleported out of his ecto-bindings. He had hoped the ghost didn’t have the energy to both hold the duplicate and teleport, but it appeared as if he was very wrong. He let out an impressive string of expletives as Dracul reformed himself a few feet away. He was about to start fighting his opponent when a shocked cry from Danny got his attention.  
  
Danny had gotten distracted again, and he was quickly finding that was a deadly mistake when fighting this ghost. The clone currently had him in a hold with both of his arms pinned behind him. It was rapidly drawing off his diminished reserves, and he was now struggling to stay in ghost form. Things were about as bad as he could think of when a nearly neon pink cloud gathered in front of him.  
  
Vlad saw Danny’s quickly dropping aura and Dracul’s hold and knew he had to act fast. He spared a glance for the original Dracul, before closing his eyes and teleporting to where Danny was floating struggling in the clone’s grasp. He reappeared a few feet in front of the fighting duo, _though,_ he noted with dismay, _Dracul’s doing a lot more fighting than Daniel,_ and fired a shot at Dracul’s side.  
  
The clone pulled them both out of the way of the attack, and continued draining the younger halfa.  
  
Vlad stepped back in front of them and tried something spontaneous. Knowing his (WHAT?) couldn’t get them separated with doing something drastic, he phased his arm through Danny’s middle and fired an ecto-blast directly into the Dracul clone on the other side.   
  
The clone cried out and let go of Danny as it recoiled away from Vlad’s blast. He hadn’t expected the attack, and the only thing keeping him together at the moment was the extra energy it had stolen from Danny.  
  
Danny panted in Vlad’s arms. That last attack from Dracul had really taken it out of him. He didn’t know how much longer he could keep this up, but he had a feeling it wasn’t as long as Dracul could now with his newly acquired energy. “Ok…so…new plan. You get drained. I…get to watch.” He pushed away from Vlad and floated along side of him.  
  
“How about this little ghostling,” the Dracul clone said suddenly only feet away from them both, “I drain Plasmius, and you _die._ ” The clone fired a large blast into Danny’s chest and watched with glee as he sailed into the roof of the building behind him.  
  
Danny crashed into the building top and immediately transformed. The last of his energy used to protect his body from serious injury from the fall. He looked up wearily at where Vlad and Dracul were floating. He was totally drained. He hadn’t felt this tired since he first got his powers, maybe not since the first time he got into a fight way over his head. He glared weakly at the fight taking place above him. _I have to get back out there. Come on powers, start being useful and work._ Danny struggled back onto his feet as the fight above him took a turn for the worse.  
  
Vlad had been holding his own against Dracul and his duplicate the last few minutes, but it was quickly overwhelming him. He wasn’t used to fighting two opponents for one, and for another, even with Dracul’s power split between the two forms; he had more than enough energy, provided by Danny, to keep Vlad on his toes. Vlad phased through another determined swipe and teleported out of reach again. He silently thanked whatever god had blessed him with the sudden ability to teleport, because it was keeping him alive at the moment. He knew Danny was too out of energy to fight with him at the moment, and likely for the foreseeable future, but his own reserves were coming up empty from all of the fighting the last few hours. Worse, when Dracul had gripped his core earlier, it had left it damaged. The result was not only was he low on energy overall, but he wasn’t making much more of it at the moment. He was going to be a sitting duck soon if he didn’t think of something.  
  
Danny concentrated on transforming again. He could feel something pulling inside of him, and that was never a good sign. He only got that sensation when he was extremely low on energy, and shouldn’t be transforming, but he didn’t really have a choice at the moment. Either he found a way to summon up the energy and help Vlad, or they both would be monster chow for that crazy vampire ghost. Danny had almost gathered up enough worryingly thin tendrils of energy when he heard Vlad scream in pain. He opened his eyes to a frightening sight and decided. _Now or never._ He thought as he forced his transformation and dove off of the roof.  
  
Vlad was pinned beneath the original Dracul, his former clone quickly reabsorbed from a large blow Vlad had managed to land. The nasty vampire had its clawed hand back around his core, and from the look of manic glee in its eyes, it wasn’t just planning on draining energy this time. Vlad reached down for the energy to force Dracul off, only to find it quickly dissipating into the form above him. The pain radiating from his chest nearly tripled as he lost the minimum energy to keep his ghost form, but couldn’t transform with the vampire’s hand clamped around his core.

A very cold jag of terror shot up his spine as he felt the crazed ghost yank at his core, determined to kill him on the spot. Vlad grit his teeth and reached for the strength that just didn’t seem to be there anymore. If he didn’t get him off now, he was going to die. Strands of desperation pooled in his stomach as the edges of his vision began to gray out. His vision blackened, and he was just about to reach for the ball of warmth, he sensed more than anything else, at the edges of his perception when the pulling at his center stopped.  
  
Danny zipped down from his vantage point on the roof, skidding to a stop scant feet from the entangled pair. When he saw Dracul was too engaged with whatever sick attack he was trying on Vlad to notice his arrival, Danny focused some spectral energy into his hand. The extra draw on his power left him gasping, but with a grunt of determination, Danny fired the weak attack into Dracul’s body.  
  
The blow threw the ghost several feet into a small dent in the building across the street.  
  
Danny panted as he tried to hold onto his ghost form next to a nearly unconscious Vlad. He leaned against his knees, sweat sliding down his face, as Dracul stepped away from the dented building, glowing brighter than the fading sun in the west. Danny took a deep breath and reached for more energy, only to feel his transformation involuntarily start. He literally only had the energy to be in ghost form at the moment, and if Vlad’s writhing and groaning were any indication, he wasn’t in fighting shape either.  
  
They were both basically sitting ducks to a now supercharged vampire ghost, glowing with their combined energies.  
  
In spite of everything, Danny wasn’t going to give up. There was no way he was dying here, in the freaking past; to an enemy a younger weaker Vlad had been able to take care of. It just wasn’t happening. He focused his efforts on drawing up more energy, and nearly smiled when he felt enough for a few weak ecto-blasts pool inside his body. It wasn’t a lot, but he was going to go down fighting if he was going down at all.  
  
Dracul’s face split into a wild wide eyed grin. He was nearly high with the concentrated energies of his opponents, and both of them were basically lambs for the slaughter at this point. He calmly started walking away from the dent in the wall and watched with delight as the younger of the two hybrids winced with every step. He reveled in the unabashed look of fear shining in the young ghost’s eyes before raising a hand. He was done with this fight, and would finish the younger ghost in a single blast. He had already gotten enough of his energy, so he didn’t mind wasting him now. He charged a nearly swirling green ball of spectral energy and fired…directly at Vlad’s prone body.    
  
Danny’s eyes widened as he watched Dracul’s hand changed directions slightly to point to the still reeling very human Vlad next to him. Before he had really thought about it, he was in front of the attack. He realized with slight regret he didn’t have the energy for even the weakest of shields and was going to take this directly. The attack looked nasty, and Danny had just a second to consider that maybe just _maybe_ he had a chance of dying.  
  
Vlad was drawn out of his personal world built of pain and shock when he felt a strong blast of energy head towards him. He had transformed nearly directly after Dracul had let go of his core, the little energy he had left spurring him to change back into his significantly weaker human half. The next few seconds went in slow motion for him, and even afterward he wasn’t sure exactly what happened. All of a sudden, Danny was in front of him. He felt the boy make a paltry effort to create a shield before giving into the fact he was completely out of energy and bracing for the attack.  
  
Danny cried out as the green spectral blast threw him from in front of Vlad, through a light pole and across the street, buried into the side of a building.  
  
Vlad turned from the sight of Danny smashing into the building diagonal from him just in time to see Dracul leap at him.  
  
He was an imposing sight. Cape flaring, fangs bared, claws at the ready to turn Vlad into chunks of human flesh. Dracul smiled at the naked fear in Vlad’s eyes as he closed in on his position, knowing he was the last thing the hybrid would ever see.  
  
Vlad gasped and reached down for energy. His body transformed on instinct, and in the heartbeats between life and death, summoned up the energy for a proper defense. He felt the energy leaving his hands before he had really registered he _had_ the power to defend himself.  
  
Dracul was inches away now; he could almost feel the warm hum of the blood of the defenseless Vlad under his fingers, washing over his hands. He was close, so close…  
  
Vlad’s energy solidified into a single strong pole of light. It sailed from his palms and completely uninhibited into Dracul’s chest. In a flash of hot energy, it appeared barely slowed out of the other side, Dracul’s still pulsating core skewered on the end.  
  
Danny’s head shot up just in time to see the end of the fight. From his position he thought he saw Dracul’s hand disappear through Vlad, and gasped when a thick pink piece of solid ectoplasm appeared on the other side of Dracul.  
  
The ghost floated inches from Vlad, held aloft on the solid energy from his palms.  
  
Then Dracul suddenly went opaque, his body rapidly dissolving into the charged air around him. Dracul’s form shriveled up starting from his limbs and working back towards his chest. With a low moan, his entire body disappeared into the growing gloom of the evening in a final poof of dark smoke.  
  
Danny gaped from his position across the street. He had been sure the two of them were toast, now he was safe, and the craziest ghost he had ever met was definitely dead instead of him. He closed his eyes and leaned back against the brick wall, suddenly more tired than he’d been in his entire life.  
  
The energy shaft Vlad had created blinked out of existence leaving him panting on his hands and knees. His arms quickly gave out and he found himself laying flat on the damp and craggy ground. Vlad sighed on the cold wet concrete in the alley. It was finally over. Admittedly, it had taken a lot more effort than he had ever supposed it would, but he was grateful Danny had fought with him. _Even if he does fight like he has a death wish._ He worked himself back onto his legs with a grunt, already sore from the battle. Danny was a few yards away, similarly lounging about, but they couldn’t stay here much longer. He walked over to Danny and poked him in the side. “Come on little badger, if we don’t get out of here soon, they’ll haul us off to jail for property damage and trespassing or something.”  
  
Danny groaned as the wail from the sirens got louder in the distance. “But I’m tired.” That was one of the hardest fights he’d ever been in, and he had had help. He watched as Vlad shuffled stiffly closer to his position against the building’s wall.  
  
“Me too. But unless you want to sleep this off in the county jail, I’d suggest getting onto your feet.”  
  
“Where are we even going? Your apartment is slag remember.” Danny wobbled his way to his feet, and crossed the street to keep up with an already walking Vlad. _And your car is ruined, and there’s no way I have the strength to transform and fly anymore._  
  
“Maybe so, but it’s not the only place we can stay for the night, and luckily, the Fenton’s have a car too, because there’s no chance I could fly another second tonight. Come on,” Vlad pointed around the corner a few feet away, “let’s put a few blocks between us and here before we call for a pick up.”  
  
Danny huffed and dragged his tired feet, scuffling across the pavement. “Alright. But you owe me big time for even being conscious right now.” He silently slipped around the corner, and made the few blocks journey to a safe distance, as defined by Vlad. Danny leaned against a wall in exhaustion before saying, “Hey guess what?”  
  
Vlad held his hand over the speaker of the pay phone. “What Daniel?” It was the early evening, and it would take the Fenton’s at least an hour and a half to get to them. He didn’t feel like being conscious to wait that long.  
  
“We did it. We kicked that ghost’s ass.” Danny was actually pretty proud of that. For a couple seconds near the end, he had thought they were both toast. He might not have liked the way the battle ended, he wasn’t one to condone killing for any reason, but at least it was over.  
  
Vlad smiled as Jack picked up on the other line, already agreeing to help, having seen the destruction of his apartment on the local evening news. Vlad hung up the phone, and turned to Danny, their ride already on the way. “You’re right we did do it.” He walked over to Danny and ruffled his hair. “I couldn’t have done it without you, Daniel, thanks.” He hooked Danny around the shoulders, giving him a noogie for good measure.  
  
“No problem.” Danny said struggling against Vlad’s hold.  
  
“Oh and Daniel?” Vlad held Danny out at arm’s length. He had suddenly adopted a very serious tone and look.  
  
“Huh?”  
  
“Don’t you ever even think about jumping in front of an attack like that again! What do you have a death wish or something?” He started in on a worried rant which Danny shrugged off with a fit of giggles, much to Vlad’s chagrin.

 

* * *

  
The ride back with the Fentons’ went much quieter than Danny thought it would. His dad had assumed the call was about Vlad’s burnt out apartment, and didn’t bother to question their tired beat-up shapes when he arrived in the RV.  
  
Vlad had quickly lied, explaining their singed clothes and tired demeanor away with a harrowing and completely bullshit tale of a dual escape from the apartment fire. When he had Jack and Maddie more than sympathetic and riveted with his impromptu tale, he asked to stay at their place a few days.

For once, Danny was glad his arch-enemy, who really wasn’t in this time, was such an expert liar. He had his parents eating from the palm of his hand by the end of his completely fake tale, and the two of them a place to stay indefinitely.  
  
The Fenton’s had insisted, Vlad didn’t have anywhere to stay at the moment and no car to get him anywhere either. There was just no way Vlad could stay in a hotel with Danny, they reasoned, because he needed every cent he owned to get back on his feet. “Your whole apartment went up in smoke along with your car. What kind of friend would I be, if you couldn’t stay at my place until you got some money saved for a new place?” Jack had plainly stated with not a single objection from his wife.  
  
That surprised Danny most of all. Back in his own time, his mother couldn’t stand Vlad, not that he blamed her. Here though, it seemed she was a close friend of his and more than welcoming, something that was throwing Danny off. He admitted it was a long time between his time and this one, but the thought of no longer being friends with someone she was obviously so close to was confusing. He couldn’t imagine not being friends with his own best buds back home, and the idea that it was a possibility in the future left a nasty taste in his mouth.   
  
He couldn’t even put it off as Vlad just being a bad person, poor friend, or just a plain creep. He hadn’t spent basically the last week in Vlad’s life to revert to thinking so black and white about his arch-enemy. He wasn’t a cut out villain or caricature, he was a person, and that’s what bothered Danny the most. He wasn’t sure how many other people he had misjudged in his life, but with the possibility that even _Vlad_ was a nice guy, at least once, it made him less sure about his world view about good and evil. Unfortunately, thoughts of evil left him seriously uneasy. There was only one place it always led, and he didn’t want anything to do with _that_ ghost. He was so introspective at the moment, he missed Jack’s question.   
  
“Daniel?”  
  
He heard the only female voice in the RV call out to him from the front part of the car. “Huh?”  
  
“Jack asked how you were, you’ve been awfully quiet.” Maddie turned back around to look at Danny. She was worried about the young teen, being in a fire, especially one as serious as Vlad described, was stressful. And after all of that, Vlad had said something about the two of them running into a ghost. Of course, that had her husband going on in a separate conversation with Vlad about it, but she was still more concerned about the basically family-less young man behind her.  
  
“Oh, uh, I’m fine, just really tired.” It wasn’t a lie. That last fight had taken the wind out of his sails, and when he realized they had no apartment to go back to on top of the destroyed car, Danny’s dwindling energy supply had bottomed out on him.  
  
“Ok. I just wanted to make sure you weren’t hurt from the fire, or that awful ghost.”  
  
Danny hadn’t really been listening to the conversation, lost in his own mind. Now, however, he was paying close attention. “Ghost?”  
  
“Yeah you know Daniel, the one you and Vladdie scared off!” Jack boomed from the driver’s seat. He swerved off the highway and began down the packed dirt road towards Amity Park.  
  
“Oh well,” Danny stalled, “Vlad did most of the work.”  
  
“Oh don’t be so modest Daniel, you did an admirable job. I’m sure you’ve never seen a ghost up close before, it’s not like you ‘fight ghosts all the time back home’ or something.” Vlad said with air quotes mirroring Danny’s words from earlier. He sent Danny a knowing look, daring him to disagree. Honestly, he wanted more information out of the younger teen, but teasing him, as counter to that goal as it was, was much more fun at the moment. He had all the time to pry later, after they got to the Fentons’ house. Vlad shifted the blabbing infant in his lap as Jack took a turn a little too wildly. _Honestly, sometimes the man drives like a bat out of hell._  
  
“Oh…heh yeah right. Well, you know, I’m just glad I could help you out. That vampire ghost wasn’t so tough.” Danny tried not to roll his eyes at his own lie. Dracul had been tougher than he had ever thought possible.  
  
“Yes, you’d make an excellent ghost hunter one day.” Vlad agreed immediately. “Maybe as good as you.” He cooed down to the smiling Jasmine.  
  
Jack perked up at the thought of another ghost hunter. “You think so Vladdie? Well I’d be happy to teach you the ropes Daniel, any time. Hey! What about tomorrow?” Jack offered overly enthusiastic at the thought of training another fighter against ghost scum.  
  
“Well let’s just let out little hero recover Jack. He’s had a long day, the fire, the ghost and the exploding diner; he has to be worn out.” Maddie sent Danny a sympathetic look from the front seat.  
  
“Oh don’t worry about me, I can handle anything. Just call me Buffy.” Danny said while leaning further back into the seat.  
  
“Who?” The three adults said almost simultaneously. Even the little Jasmine looked utterly confused.  
  
“Uh you know the vampire slayer? Er…” Danny trailed off when he remembered he first saw the show at ten. _Chances are the TV show hasn’t even been invented yet. I need to go home, where my pop references make sense again._ “Nothing.” He finished. He looked out the window as the country dark world around him melded into the small city of Amity. Suddenly, he remembered that he and Vlad were supposed to be staying at Fentonworks. When he first heard it, Danny had been relieved just to have a place to sleep with a bed. Now though, he was dreading it with every closing mile. He was exhausted, but staying in the house with his ‘not parents’ was going to drive him nuts. If not because of their weird behavior, _well weirder than usual for them_ , then because it all reminded him how far he was from home, while actually being there. _How can I be living in my house, but not actually home?_ Danny pondered miserably.  
  
The RV pulled onto the street with Fentonworks, and Jack slammed on brakes in front of the building. “Alright! We’re here, and just in time for too, it’s nearly 7pm. Who’s up for pizza?” Jack stepped out of the car, making it shake with his departure.  
  
“I am.” Maddie balanced the baby bag with her daughter as Vlad handed her back. At first, she thought it was silly to bring Jasmine along what amount to a glorified pick-up trip, but then she remembered neither her nor her daughter had gotten out in the last two weeks. Other than trips to the grocery, she had been holed up with her new child the last six months or so. As ridiculous as the sentiment would have been only half a year ago, dragging her infant daughter along on a short car trip was the only way she was getting out of the house at the moment.  
  
“I second that motion. I’m starving.” Vlad opened the side of the RV and stepped out a few paces in front of Danny. “Something with mushrooms and pepperoni.”  
  
“Yeah! And black olives and anchovies.” Jack added excitedly.  
  
“Ew. I’m not eating that, you boys are on your own. Whatever happened to something sweet like pineapple or tomatoes?” Maddie stepped around the front of the RV carrying Jasmine in her arms, complaining on her friend’s food tastes.  
  
The three adults had nearly reached the front door of Fentonworks when they noticed Danny wasn’t with them.  
  
Vlad chuckled and bounded down the stairs to the RV. “Fall asleep in here little badger?” Vlad leaned back inside the vehicle and startled at the sight inside.  
  
Danny stared forlornly at imposing building before him. If he thought living with Vlad had been hell, living with his arch-enemy, who wasn’t at the moment, _inside_ his ‘not’ house was going to be unbearable. Just thinking about all the addendums he needed to make it make sense was hurting his head. He didn’t want to get out of the car, to acknowledge he had no choice but put up with the living arrangement that was quickly becoming a new nightmarish hell.

He groaned and closed his eyes. He leaned down and placed his face into his hands, elbows resting on his knees. If he had felt tired before now, he was struggling to find the energy to even wiggle his pink finger now. _Why me? Why couldn’t I have just taken Clockwork’s advice?_ He had completely forgotten why he was here in the first place. What difference did it make when he was this miserable at the moment? He didn’t look up when he felt a strong hand on his shoulder.   
  
“Daniel?” Vlad wasn’t sure exactly what was wrong. He had a few theories that centered around the Fentons, _their lab, the ghost hunting, the location itself in Amity_ , but nothing concrete. He squeezed Danny shoulder when he didn’t respond. “I know you’re tired, but I’m sure you don’t want me carrying you inside.” He decided to go for humor; maybe he could prod the tired teen into action without having to annoy him, even if that seemed to work best.  
  
“I…” What could he really say? That he didn’t want to go inside to live with his future parents? Truth or not, that would only cause more problems for him. Unluckily, it was really his only solid objection.  
  
Vlad smiled wanly at the obviously troubled teen in front of him and took a seat on his right side. “I’m not sure why you don’t like the Fentons. Maybe you don’t like being in ghost hunting central, not that I blame you. Maybe their personalities drive you nuts, not that I don’t agree with that assessment myself, with some exceptions of course.” Vlad leaned over and whispered, “or maybe they remind you of your own science minded parents,” he paused when he saw Danny tense up, “but whatever the reason, if you can’t stay here, hotels really aren’t that bad.” He moved back and waited for Danny’s response.  
  
Danny frowned into his hands. He wasn’t letting this get to him, especially since he didn’t really have the money to stay anywhere else, and at this point, neither did Vlad. He had to suck it up. There was just no way Danny Fenton, Danny _Phantom_ ; the teen with freaking superpowers was upset about living in a house. It was just ridiculous! “No I’m fine.” He spoke tersely. “I’m just a little tired; I’ll be inside in a second.” He waved off another one of Vlad’s attempts to pry out the problem before standing and striding out of the RV.

He had made it up to the stairs before where he was really going, _doing,_ caught up with him. He stared at the threshold of the doorway before him and took a deep breath. No matter what, he wasn’t going to back out now. He’d get done with what he planned to do, and get out of there. _If I can survive living with the Fruitloop alone for a week, I can survive this._ Danny thought shakily and stepped inside. Somehow, he felt this was going to be a lot more difficult than just living with Vlad.    


	8. If Some Things are Inevitable…

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Breakfast, an argument, and the immutability of destiny.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is late...because I did some editing so that I no longer hated the dumb mistakes I made with typos or whatever.

Sunday morning rose well before either Vlad or Danny were ready to greet it. Despite Vlad’s early riser status, the last 24 hours had been harrowing to say the least.

For the first time since teenhood, he slept well past midmorning, only appearing a little before noon at the beckoning of his stomach.  
  
Danny was more than happy to curl up in a bed and sleep till Armageddon, until he smelled something wonderful wafting up the stairs and into the bedroom. He was sharing what would be his room, in the future, with Vlad. The future arch-nemesis had graciously offered Danny the one bed in the room, opting to sleep on the floor. Which was just fine with a sleep addled Danny, because sharing a bed with Vlad was still on his ‘never happening’ list. Though he had to admit, the list’s items had been changed a lot recently, with ‘stay inside Vlad’s house’ and ‘fight with him willingly’ being struck from it.  
  
He slowly uncurled as the delicious scent twisted under his nose, enticing him from the bowels of sleep. He cast a blurry-eyed furtive glance around the room, hoping to feign sleep if Vlad was still around. Finding nothing but the inside of his currently sparsely decorated bedroom, Danny shrugged the covers off and shuffled towards the door. There wasn’t a clock to be seen, so he didn’t know the time, but his stomach obviously determined it was time for food. He clopped down the stairs and turned towards the kitchen; where he could hear someone clattering cookware together to make food.  
  
Vlad was making a smorgasbord. He couldn’t remember being quite this hungry in awhile, but he assumed it has something to do with the battle yesterday and the few days before that. He smiled down at the practical breakfast buffet he was making. True enough it was officially time for lunch, but he didn’t care. He looked over his shoulder when he heard Danny stumble down the stairs and into the kitchen. “I see the smell of food woke you up.” He turned around to stir a pot of oatmeal while he waited for Danny process his sentence.  
  
“Yeah. It smells good.” His brain was working on monosyllabic at the moment. He lifted his tired head from the table and looked over at the stove. “What are you making?”  
  
“Oatmeal, bacon, sausage, eggs, hash browns, pancakes, and waffles. Plus toast, in a second or two.” Vlad flipped over a pancake as the waffle iron went off next to him.  
  
“Wow. Is, um, that all for you?” Danny only barely lifted his head from the table to ask, before setting it back down.  
  
Vlad snorted in response to the innocent question. “Of course not Daniel. You don’t expect me to eat this by myself? Well, I feel like I could at the moment, but I’m not going to.” He paused to slap the newest waffle onto the plate of them he was collecting and finished off the pancakes.  
  
Danny smiled into the table top. He was way too tired to think about cooking something at the moment, and sore on top of it. Something vaguely concerning tickled at the back of his mind, and he looked around the kitchen. His eyes finally settled on the clock in the room, before widening in surprise. “It’s nearly half past noon, where’s everyone else?”  
  
“Maddie is in the lab, Jack has gone grocery shopping, Jasmine is in the living room you just passed without care, and the two of us are in the kitchen.” Vlad plopped several of the eggs he had just cracked into the hot skillet. “How do you want your eggs? I’m feeling over-easy today, but something tells me you want scrambled as usual.”  
  
“Um, I’ll eat them however you want them, I don’t really care at the moment as long as it’s food.” Danny looked over towards the stack of hot waffles and pancakes on the counter next to the stove. “Can I get some of those?” He didn’t wait for a response, already walking over to the cabinet where his family kept the silverware and plates to make himself one.  
  
“Of course you can, take whatever you like, the dishes are-” Vlad turned around to find Danny already behind him, reaching for a big fluffy waffle. Vlad raised an eyebrow, but said nothing, determining to put it on his ‘still unexplained’ list about Danny. If he was lucky, he’d get a chance to ask about it later.  
  
Danny loaded his plate with bacon, hash browns, waffles, and the first two over-easy eggs Vlad made. He looked forlornly over at the near finished oatmeal, realizing he both had no more room on his plate, and had forgotten to bring a bowl.  
  
Vlad rolled his eyes when he saw Danny’s face. “Oh for heaven’s sake, it’s not going anywhere Daniel; I’ll bring it to you in a minute. Just grab the syrup from the cabinet and go start eating.” He watched in interest as Danny did just that, neither asking where the specific cabinet was nor looking for the shelf it was sitting on. _Two points for the uncanny knowledge category and he’s been up all of 15 minutes._ Vlad mused before finishing off the eggs and stirring the oatmeal one last time.  
  
“Ooo, what smells so delicious?” A voice carried from the living room and back into the kitchen.  
  
“Breakfast, well more like brunch at this point.” Vlad answered calmly fixing himself a plate. He reached into the upper cabinetry for a bowl and balanced it with his own food haul.  
  
Maddie walked into the kitchen, Jasmine balanced on her hip. She wasn’t in the blue hazmat suit typical of when she worked in the lab, having changed a few minutes back to clean up from lab work. “You cooked? With what, the cabinets are nearly bare.” Maddie set Jasmine into her high chair next to Danny nearly frantically piling food into his mouth. “Good morning Daniel.” She said while walking towards where Vlad was finishing the balancing act with his own food and the bowl of oatmeal Danny had asked for.  
  
“Guf murnin’” Danny said behind a mouth full of food.  
  
“I made it from scratch. There was plenty of milk and flour to go around, so it was simple.” Vlad stepped around Maddie to set his plate and Danny’s bowl onto the table.  
  
Maddie was about to fix herself something when she noticed a plate already loaded with her favorites.  
  
“Pancakes, turkey bacon, hash browns and scrambled eggs right?” Vlad called from his position inside the fridge. He looked over the top of the refrigerator door at a pleasantly surprised Maddie. He chuckled and grabbed the last of the orange juice from the door. “You ate it every time I made breakfast for the four of us, so I figured-”  
  
“Four?” Danny had paused in his food vacuum behavior long enough to get a clear question out of his mouth.  
  
“Yes, Maddie and her roommate, plus Jack and I.” Vlad set the juice onto the table and settled into a seat besides Maddie.  
  
“I can’t believe you remember crazy stuff like this, it’s been years.” Maddie poured out some baby food for her daughter into a bowl, ready to balancing feeding Jasmine and herself at once per usual.  
  
“Oh come on, I fixed it for breakfast like three times a week, give me some credit.” Vlad shot back with a smirk.  
  
The female ghost hunter watched as Danny finished his first plate and practically bum rushed the kitchen counter for seconds. “The food isn’t going anywhere Daniel.” She smiled around her fork as he tried to Tetris more food onto his apparently too small plate.  
  
“You’re _so_ wrong about that. It’s definitely going somewhere.” Danny settled back into his seat next to Jasmine, fork already posed at his lips. “Its destination is Dannyville, population my stomach.”  
  
Maddie rolled her eyes and nudged Vlad sitting next to her. “And what’s with you?” She asked to the second person practically inhaling his food at the table. “I haven’t seen you eat like this since that time we got caught in the woods for three days and Jack forgot to pack the rations.”  
  
Vlad gulped down the last of his waffle before answering, “I didn’t actually eat much yesterday, and because of all that running we did I’m starving.” He emphasized his point by heading back to the nearly half gone spread for a second plate himself. He decidedly neglected to mention he was always this hungry after he expended a lot of ghost energy. He sat back into his seat and suppressed a laugh as Jasmine valiantly avoided her mother’s attempts at feeding her.  
  
Maddie’s face settled into a small frown as Jasmine dodged the spoon for a fifth time and then reached for her plate instead. “No.” The mother said while moving her plate farther out of Jasmine’s reach.  
  
Jasmine let out a frustrated whine and leaned over farther while still avoiding the spoon. When the plate moved again, the frustration became anger and she let out a short scream.  
  
“ _No_ , Jasmine.” Her mother continued to move the plate away from the determined infant.  
  
Vlad poked the new mother in her side to get her attention. “Why don’t I try for a few minutes? You finish breakfast, and I’ll play Dodge the Spoon with peanut.” He got up to switch places with an increasing flustered looking Maddie.  
  
She sighed and looked back at her currently growing ice cold plate of food. “I don’t know, I mean, you’re still hungry too.” She watched as Vlad waved her off and began to nudge her into his old seat.  
  
“I’ve already had a whole plate; I’ll be fine for a few minutes.” He smiled when Maddie relinquished her seat and began eating her food again.  
  
Danny watched the exchange with growing malaise. For the few minutes he had been too hungry to consider anything else, the fact Vlad was eating breakfast with his mom and sister in the kitchen of his house hadn’t bothered him. Now, it was all too clear how wrong everything was and he couldn’t manage to un-think the sentiment that none of this was supposed to be happening.  
  
Vlad watched as Jasmine grew increasingly more upset with the lack of table food being presented for her to eat. “Where in the world did she get the idea any of this was for her anyway?”  
  
“Jack sometimes feeds her stuff off of his plate when I’m not looking. I keep telling him she’s too young to be on serious solids with all the spices in it, but he doesn’t listen.” Maddie pursed her lips as she thought about the last time Jasmine had gotten a hold of real food. “And he’s usually gone or busy by the time the results of it hit her stomach.”  
  
Vlad hummed in thought before turning his back completely to Maddie to block his next trick. He turned his hand and the spoon of baby food intangible and stuck it into Jasmine’s stunned cheek, slipping it completely inside before only phasing the _spoon_ and not the food inside of it. The Gerber plopped inside Jasmine’s still closed mouth, and Vlad quickly removed the spoon from the inside of her face, turning it tangible. He watched in smug satisfaction as the baby swallowed, eyes still practically bugged out of her head. _That trick always did shock her into eating._  
  
Jasmine slowly blinked her eyes before letting out an excited squeal. She kicked her legs and opened her mouth, now more than interested in eating after feeling the fun tingle of intangibility.  
  
Danny watched the whole exchange as a stunned look slowly crossed his face. He couldn’t believe how blatant Vlad had just been with his powers. Admittedly, he wasn’t the poster boy for inconspicuous sometimes, but the audacity of using his powers with his mom right behind him…it just seemed amazingly shortsighted.   
  
Maddie grabbed her plate and was headed for the sink when she heard Jasmine squeal. The house wife/inventor watched muted fondness as Vlad spooned mashed bananas into Jasmine’s much more cooperative mouth. She shook her head and slid back into the seat next to him. “I can’t believe you got her to eat. She’s so stubborn when she gets like that.”  
  
“Oh I’m very convincing when I need to be.”  
  
“That’s true, and you are the only one who can get her to eat when she’s in that kind of mood.” Maddie reached over began cleaning up the rest of the table. “I’m still not sure how you convinced us to let you pay for staying here. I mean, you need a new car, and your insurance doesn’t pay for acts of God, which is basically what a ghost attack _is_ , and you don’t have anything you could sell left. Your whole apartment went up in smoke last night. Why are you paying to stay again?” Maddie shuffled the last of the dirty plates into the sink to be washed later. _No doubt by Vlad with his OCD tendencies._ She leaned against the kitchen counter and watched the rest of the room.  
  
There were times, like these, when it honestly felt like her life was missing something. She had her husband and her amazing little girl, but sometimes she wished Vlad was here too. He was more than simply helpful, he was one of her closest friends, and came up with the best ideas to help move her family’s scientific work forward if they were stuck on something. It was why she was in the lab this morning, Vlad had said something offhandedly last night and it had set off a chain of thoughts in her sleep that left her with an ‘eureka’ moment when she awoke this morning.  
  
“Because I’m staying in your house, eating your food, using your utilities, and so is Daniel. I have to provide _something_ having two extra people around can’t be easy for you financially.”  
  
“But you have so much to replace.”  
  
“I don’t have to move immediately, your quite generous offer for an indefinite stay was very clear last night when we talked it over. If I’m staying here as long as I need, then at least I can pay for something. I still have a job, besides, if I don’t buy the groceries we’ll all starve.” Vlad finished half-joking.  
  
The Fenton’s weren’t the best with money at the moment, both the adults still used to the single lifestyle without a new baby to suck up most of the funds. They over spent their budget every once in a while, and Vlad pitched in by overpaying for meals that the Fenton’s insisted were free, claiming it was for eating through their groceries. Neither party thought anything of the arrangement, and the Fenton’s were getting much better about their budget.  
  
“Still, I’m sure that saving all of your money, not paying us, at least for the first two months, would help that significantly.” Maddie walked back over to the table, ready to get more comfortable on the couch in the living room.  
  
Vlad scrunched his brows as Maddie lifted her child from her seat by the table. Danny was nowhere to be found. _Knowing him, he’s vacated the area out of awkwardness._ “Perhaps, but I’m not going to be freeloading around here. Besides, even if you don’t want me to pay, someone has to pay for Daniel until he gets a job.”  
  
Maddie sighed and walked back into the living room. Sure, she didn’t want Vlad handing over money he’d need to replace the several thousand dollars he’d lost over the last 24 hours, but she couldn’t deny they needed the money. If not for Vlad staying, then for Danny. They didn’t have any real savings at the moment, and what they did have was being eaten up repairing that huge hole in their roof. Even though Jack was out getting supplies for them to fix it, and between the three of them it would be done by the end of the month, it cost money they didn’t have at the moment. “Alright. I can accept money for that at least.” She settled bonelessly onto the couch and looked up towards where her ceiling should be. The ghost hunter scowled as the open air from outside shifted the tarp up and temporarily revealed the sky.  
  
Vlad followed her eyes up and grimaced when he noticed the second hole in the roof. _I really should have just thrown him out of the hole he had already made. Though I might have some news to cheer her up._ “I didn’t tell you which ghost Daniel and I ran into yesterday did I?” He leaned over the edge of the couch watching as she flipped a little more aggressively than necessarily through the channels on the television.  
  
“No you didn’t, you just said it was pretty annoying.” She stopped on MTV to listen to a song by Motley Crew.  
  
“It was the ghost that came through the roof on Wednesday.” He waited for her to digest the information over her attention on the music.  
  
“Wait, you mean the one who was able to remove energy out of other ghosts?” She patted Jasmine’s back and looked over her shoulder at Vlad.  
  
He was the picture of calm confidence as he related how the two of them had destroyed Dracul, with careful omissions of course, and some out right bullshit for good measure. “It was really a lucky shot, the last blow. For a second, I was sure I was going to be ghost food. Luckily, that ecto-blaster of yours is nicely calibrated. What are you calling that by the way?”  
  
“Well I haven’t decided, but right now the only thing I can manage to call it is ‘damn’.”  
  
“Why’s that?” Vlad walked around the couch and sat next to her on the side closer to Jasmine.  
  
“Because it’s always, ‘damn this circuit blew’, ‘damn it, it’s sucked up another entire pack of batteries, ‘damn that stupid gun.’. At this point, it’s been called ‘damn’ more than anything else, so why not?”  
  
Vlad scoffed and picked up his ‘niece’. “I can see it now, ‘Damn!’ it supplies all your ghost hunting needs.” Vlad felt his heart flutter at the sound of Maddie’s light giggling. He loved that sound.  
  
“Oh yeah, that’s a real seller. No matter if you are angry or excited, it’ll fit perfectly.” Maddie rolled her eyes skyward, and glanced at the clock in the living room. _Jack should be back by now._ She thought absentmindedly. She heard her daughter giggle when their new boarder tickled her stomach. She had to admit, Vlad was surprisingly good with children.  
  
“Damn!”  
  
The sudden exclamation caught both of the adults off guard. Jasmine giggled some more, and happily repeated herself a few more times.  
  
Vlad and Maddie blinked down at the cursing giggling infant in front of them in shock. Slowly their eyes connected as they processed Jasmine’s behavior.  
  
“Maddie?”  
  
“Yes Vlad?”  
  
“We’re going to have to stop cursing aren’t we?” Vlad frowned when Jasmine cursed again, oblivious to the actual meaning of the word.  
  
“Yeah, I’m also going to have to fill out Jasmine’s ‘First’s’ book with that as her first word. Maybe this will come back to embarrass her later.” Maddie glanced down at her now more settled daughter, whining for attention since her cries hadn’t seemed to work as she liked.  
  
“And I’m going to have to run upstairs and beat you if you don’t stop that da-danish filled laughter Daniel.”  
  
Danny was doubled over in a giggling fit. As if the ridiculous exchange about what to name one of his parent’s ecto-guns wasn’t enough, his sister decided to interrupt in the best way possible. _Oh Jazz will never live this down._ He sucked in some air in a large gasp and continued laughing.     
“Danish filled-”  
  
“It was the best I could come up with mid-word.”  
  
“Hey I think it’s a great idea, what else would a Fruitloop curse on but baked goods?” Danny stood over the banister suppressing giggles on the stairs to complete the sentence. Vlad’s impromptu confectionary exclamation was the highlight of his day so far.  
  
“Alright that’s it!” Vlad quickly handed Jasmine back to her mother before bounding over the back of the couch. “You’re one dead badger Daniel.” Vlad rushed towards the stairs as Danny let out a squeak.  
  
The teen hero bounded up the last stair and ran for his room, right as Vlad reached the first step. Danny closed and locked the door behind him and made for the window, to lock it just as a precaution.  
  
“You know Daniel; one would think after having ghost powers for a year, you’d learn how to neutralize them better.” Vlad leaned against the inside of the door arms crossed. A pillow sailed across the room and bounced off of his face and into his hands.  
  
Danny had a second pillow in his hands at the ready, a wide grin pressed to his lips. Somewhere between breakfast and Jasmine’s first real word, he had forgotten all about ever being antagonistic towards Vlad.  
  
“You must be joking. Do I look five years old to you?”  
  
“No.” Danny said while stepping around the bed to face Vlad. “But I definitely feel five.” With that last statement, Danny rushed forward.  
  
Maddie jumped on the couch when she heard a crash emanating from the room above her. She was about to head upstairs to investigate when she heard Jack screech to a halt outside. Directly following that, she heard another sound from upstairs. She looked quickly from the ceiling to the front door, making her decision when she heard the RV door slam. She shifted Jasmine father back on her hip as she reached for the front door.  
  
Jack was likely to be burdened down with groceries, and would appreciate the help.  
  
Maddie swung open the door to greet her husband and was instead greeted by an entirely unexpected sight.  
  
Jack was wrestling not with groceries or supplies from the hardware store but a bundle of electronics. They all had the symbol for Axiom labs on the side. Some of it was in the shape of ecto-weapons, but the majority of it was bits, odds, and ends. Jack shoved the stuff in his hands into an over-flowing box in the trunk, before hefting the whole load into his arms. He turned from the trunk to find a very confused wife staring back. “Maddie!” He called loudly from his position right next to the rear of the RV. His orange clad form bounded up the few stairs to his home, Maddie quickly moving to allow him into the house.  
  
“Jack, what is-”  
  
“Do you like it baby?” Jack interrupted while wriggling the box to and fro.  
  
“What’s in there Jack? What happened to the groceries?” Maddie admitted; her husband could be scatter-brained. _The groceries are probably still sitting inside the RV._  She thought with a roll of her eyes.  
  
“I got all these great ghost hunting electronics and weapons from the Axiom depo. They were selling them to make room for more new stuff in their inventory. This stuff was all just declassified! It’s the latest in civilian tech. an-”  
  
“Sweetheart that’s wonderful, but where are the groceries and hardware store supplies you bought earlier?” _Sometimes he can get so engrossed._ Maddie set her daughter down into a baby swing to free up her hands to help Jack.  
  
Jack scrunched up his face in concentration. Stopping in the middle of a rant about ghosts always threw him off, but still… “What groceries Maddie?”  
  
“You know,” she started while browsing through the family’s newest electronic haul, “the ones you were supposed to be buying this morning from the U’Shop’N’Save.” She picked through the broken and falling apart mechanics, waiting for Jack’s answer.  
  
Jack picked up a particularly rusted piece and began gutting it for the expensive high-end hardware. “Oh those! I didn’t get a chance to get over there.” Jack began levering off another rusted component with a screw driver.  
  
Maddie dropped the piece she was currently working with into the table with a resounding thud rivaling the noise coming from upstairs. “What do you mean?” She managed to make the question sound like an accusation as well. “Just how much money did you spend on this,” she paused to gesture across the kitchen table, “junk Jack?”  
  
“Aw Mads. This ain’t junk.” Jack pouted under the increasing glare of his wife.  
  
“Answer the question!” She slammed her hand against the table as another crash came from upstairs.  
  
_Daniel’s done it this time._ Vlad thought while dodging another hastily thrown pillow. It slammed into the night stand, upending it, and sending both its contents and the items on its top crashing onto the floor. The older halfa winced at the sound, sure it would bring at turns curious and then furious Maddie up the stairs.  
  
Danny stood crouched on the opposite side of the room, atop the bureau. He balanced on the edge on the balls of his feet, one last pillow in hand. He was having the time of his life. Not only was he able to get some of his latent anger, about Vlad, out _on_ Vlad; he was able to do it all without ending up tossed through a wall or some other hard solid object. He jumped down and ran towards the dismayed Vlad across the room.  
  
Vlad tripped Danny’s legs out from under him. He snatched the pillow from Danny’s stunned hands on the way down, and sat on top of him, straddling his hips for good measure.  
  
Danny twisted up to grab the pillow only to be rewarded with a bop to the head.  
  
“Give up little badger; you’ve lost.” Vlad smacked him in the face again when Danny made another attempt for it.  
  
“No fair! Since when is pinning and wrestling part of a pillow fight?” Danny half-whined and reached for the pillow again.  
  
“Say ‘Uncle’ Daniel.” Vlad suppressed a laugh at the ferocious pout Danny was sending him. _Somehow, Daniel manages to bring the most childish behavior out of me. He’s like the bratty little brother you can’t help but love anyway._  
  
“Fine Unkie Vlad. You win.” Danny firmly interrupted Vlad’s thoughts.  
  
Vlad chuckled while moving to stand up. He used his extra height to deliver a final stinging slap to the face with the pillow. “That’s Uncle Vlad to you, brat.”  
  
“Yeah whatever.” Danny responded. Vlad turned his back to survey the damage their ‘little’ fight had caused, giving Danny the perfect idea. He was about to sneak in another hit across the back of Vlad’s head, when he heard someone scream from downstairs.  
  
“How the hell could you do this to us?”  
  
Danny and Vlad shared a look, after hearing the voice carry up the stairway.  
  
Danny quickly tossed his raised pillow away in favor of heading towards the door. The curious teenager peaked out of the door frame just as he heard his father’s surprised voice rush up the stairs.  
  
“I haven’t done anything wrong!”  
  
“What are you talking about? Jack, we don’t have the money for frivolous purchases like this.”  
  
“Maddie calm down.”  
  
“Calm? I am calm! I’ll tell you when I’m not calm!”  
  
Vlad tossed the younger halfa a look and motioned towards the back of the house.  
  
Danny reluctantly followed, pulling away from the sudden fight below.  
  
They walked to a spot in the back hallway leading up to the current attic, and what would be the OPS center in the future.  
  
Danny was about to question their position, it was farther away from the kitchen fight he was eavesdropping on, when Vlad winked and stuck his head clean through the floor.  More than a little shocked, Danny hesitantly followed his lead, and found himself staring down into the kitchen. _Wow! This is perfect. Not to self: eavesdropping is simpler in the back hall._ He swept his eyes over the state of the kitchen. His mother’s arms were settled on her hips, glaring a fiercely at his alternatively flabbergasted and furious father.”Jack just what are we supposed to do for food? Or about those holes in the roof?”  
  
“I-er, well…” Jack hedged. “I’m sure Vladdie-”  
  
“Vlad’s the one who gave me the money for the groceries this time! The man who just had every possession he owns blow up on him doled out the money you just threw away on gadgets and crap!” Maddie pointed an angry accusatory finger in Jack’s direction.  
  
“Well gosh Mads, I’m-”  
  
“I don’t care how sorry you are Jack! We have a daughter to feed, two holes in our house, no money to buy either groceries or supplies, and you spend the cash we do have on junk!”  
  
“This equipment isn’t junk!” Jack valiantly defended.  
  
“Well I can’t feed my child microprocessors and spectral resistors Jack Fenton, so it might as well be.”  
  
“Don’t you go getting all high and mighty on me! I’m not the only one who spends money on stuff we don’t need.” Jack’s voice wavered heavily with accusation.  
  
“And what’s that supposed to mean?”  
  
“You’re the one who bought a whole new wardrobe last month, when you had perfectly good clothes at home.”  
  
“You mean the maternity wear? Or maybe the clothes from before my hips got stretched out by your kid?” Maddie hissed out at Jack.  
  
Danny felt something poke into his shoulder and slipped his head back through the floor. “What?” He said nervous. The fight was beginning to take on severe tones, and he had a feeling something bad was going to happen. He had all but dismissed the possibility, the apartment being destroyed, and his own presence seriously mucking everything up, but now it seemed to be a significant possibility again.  
  
“Let’s get out of here. It’s still early and the park is a short walk from here. We could disappear until they decide to be more amicable.” Vlad could practically feel the awkward energy coming off of Danny in waves. He wasn’t sure why the Fenton’s arguing was so upsetting to him, on the other hand, it really didn’t matter.  
  
“Uh yeah sure.” Danny pushed up from his position on the floor, and started back towards his future room. He paused as he passed the stairs, a new sound catching his attention. “Hey Vlad, do you hear someone crying?”  
  
Vlad stopped next to Danny and leaned over the banister overlooking the living room. In a matter of seconds, he spotted the source of the wails; 6 month old Jasmine bawling her eyes out. Vlad frowned as the argument and Jasmine’s cries reached new heights. “Say, you wouldn’t mind if we brought peanut with us, would you little badger?”  
  
Danny was about to protest when he heard his parent’s lively disagreement reach ‘incoherent scream’ level. If he didn’t want to be around all this anger and noise, there was no way his sister did. So he looked back over at Vlad, and shrugged his shoulders. At the very least, Vlad would be taking care of all the babysitting duties, so he had nothing to worry about.  
  
Vlad smiled, gratefully, over at Danny before walking off to find the needed supplies. It took 15 more minutes than he thought it would, it seemed that kids require half a store’s worth of items to go anywhere, but it wasn’t like the fighting had died down any. If he had to judge, he’d say it had only gotten worse. Vlad silently slunk down the stairs, scooped up Jasmine, and made a beeline for the front door.  
  
Danny was quick on the elder halfa’s heels, stopping only briefly to contemplate the nasty severity of the ‘lover’s quarrel’ going on behind him.

 

* * *

  
“So how far is this park anyway?” Danny shuffled along after Vlad, holding the baby carrier in his left hand. The fight had him more than a little uneasy, especially since he had an idea of what it would cause, but still he didn’t want to be walking around forever. Danny was still tired from the battle with Dracul the day before, and any amount of serious effort, and at this point walking qualified, made him want to curl up in bed for a week.  
  
“Not too far, just a few blocks. More than long enough for a conversation not meant for mixed company.” Vlad nonchalantly replied.  
  
Danny winced. He had been hoping Vlad would just drop that line of conversation after the diner exploded and all, but apparently he was more determined than a dog with a bone. “A conversation about what?”  
  
“Don’t be ridiculous Daniel, about your ghost powers of course.”  
  
Danny sighed and rubbed his free hand on his neck. “I thought we already had this conversation?”  
  
“No. What we had was a game of twenty questions where you answered about two out of every ten. I’m not really satisfied with how that conversation went, but I’ll allow you your former stipulations. You don’t have to answer anything you don’t want to.” Vlad stepped off the curb and began crossing the street towards a fenced in area.  
  
Danny hesitated on the other side of the street. He recognized where they were going now. The park was a favorite of his when he was a child. It was only about five blocks from Fentonworks, and had an assortment of childhood favorites, including swings and a jungle gym, making it a popular destination for families. Especially, in the evenings in summer, when the light from the sun lasted into the late evening and the air was warm but no longer blazing.  
  
“Are you coming?” Vlad was leaning against the green fence surrounding the park; already well ahead of the stalled Danny.  
  
_As if I really have a choice, it’s either awkward conversation with Vlad, or listening to my parents argue._ Danny shrugged his shoulders, as best he could with his burden, and started across the street. This was really the lesser of two evils.  
  
The two of them walked into a deserted park.  
  
The lack of people surprised Danny, who then had to, once again, recall the time in which he resided. It was likely most of the families moved to Amity Park sometime in the future, causing the lack of kids running around to make more sense. _Vlad probably knew this place would be deserted too._ Danny shoved a tingle of discomfort away at the thought of being alone with Vlad. Despite the fact he and Vlad had nearly died fighting together just barely 24 hours previous, he still didn’t trust him farther than he could be blasted. _Most of the time at least._ He noted with growing apprehension. Danny nearly jumped when the older halfa grabbed the baby carrier out of his hand. He had been so engrossed that Vlad moving around to his left side had gone unnoticed.  
  
Jasmine had been surprising quiet during the entire walk. The yelling in the house, and the subsequent crying she had done, had tired her out.   
  
Danny made a beeline for the swings. If he was going to be subject to an unwanted conversation with Vlad of all people, he was at least going to be comfortable.  
  
Vlad quickly joined him, setting Jasmine in the baby swing to free up his hands. “So Daniel, could I ask your opinion about something?”  
  
Danny eyed Vlad suspiciously. He had been sure the next thing out of his cunning future arch-enemy would be a question about his powers. Now he seemed to want to talk about something else entirely. “About what?” Danny hedged. He wasn’t about to agree to help with something he knew nothing about.  
  
“I was wondering what to get for Maddie for her birthday. You seem creative enough, so I thought you might have some interesting suggestions.”  
  
The teen hero let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding. So that was it. “Dude her birthday is only like two weeks away.” Danny rolled his eyes. _Honestly, you’d think someone professing to be in love with my mother would know what to get her._ “You had better think of something quick, or you’ll run out of time. She loves azaleas, but I’m sure Jack will get her those. I mean she also likes ghost hunting stuff, so maybe some really nice-what are you looking like that for?” Danny fidgeted under Vlad’s intense gaze. At the moment he felt like Vlad was dissecting an interesting scientific project, the project being him.  
  
“I was just wondering how you knew when her birthday was, since I didn’t mention the date, and I’m sure Maddie hasn’t. That’s not something people talk about casually.”  
  
_Uh-oh._ “I..uh…well.”  
  
“More over Daniel, how did you know where the dishes and syrup were this morning at breakfast? It’s not like you’ve gotten your own plate before. The last time you ate there, everything was gotten for you, and even if by some miracle you figured out where the dishes were on the first try, there really is no excuse for the syrup.” Vlad gave Jasmine a small push in the swing and waited for Danny to reply. While he wanted to question Danny about his ghost powers, he needed to soften him up first.  
  
“I…” He what? He didn’t really have an excuse for this. I mean even if he could explain away everything, from the plates and syrup to the bathroom thing last week, that still left his knowledge about his mom and dad, well future mom and dad. Suddenly, an idea hit him. It wasn’t the best plan, but it was better than the mindless gum flapping he was currently doing. “How do you think I know about all that?” _Yeah great plan, answer a question **with** a question Fenton. Maybe he’s as narcissistic as I remember?_ Danny could only hope Vlad gave him a small reprieve by taking the bait.  
  
“I think you spied on them with your powers. It would explain how you knew the house layout and even little things, like dish placement. It also explains how you knew I visited often and how to ask for me to get inside.” Vlad finished the explanation with another push to the baby swing.  
  
Danny felt relief flood through him like a small tsunami.  
  
“However,” Vlad interrupted Danny’s feel good moment, “that doesn’t explain how you know so much about their personalities, or mine. You knew Maddie’s birthday, and that Jack is an awful cook. You honed in on my feelings for Maddie nearly instantly, and I can assure you most people can’t even begin to guess at them. You also unconsciously play into our personalities and weaknesses, making it harder to un-entangle our lives from your own. That kind of thing only comes from a significant amount of time spent with the people involved, to develop your behavior around their own. I’m not sure how you’re doing that.”  
  
Danny swung his legs in the seat of the swing. He was still at a loss to explain that, but not answering was better than saying anything at this point. Vlad could see through any lie he constructed, and more importantly, it was easier letting him fill in the blanks himself.  
  
Vlad took in Danny’s stoic form a few moments longer before shaking his head. He knew that at this point, that his questions on that kind of knowledge were going to go unanswered. “The last time we spoke about this seriously, you said you got your powers in an accident.” It wasn’t really a question or a statement.  
  
“Yeah and I’m not going to say where either.”  
  
“Oh I wouldn’t dream of asking the specific location. I was just wondering, what constitutes an accident to you?”  
  
_What kind of non-question is that?_ Danny still felt at prickle of unease under his incredulity. He knew enough about Vlad now to assume this was a roundabout way of still getting what he wanted. “I mean, it wasn’t on purpose. I didn’t mean to-” Danny stopped short, realizing he had almost given away the specifics of his accident. “I mean, no one meant for it to happen.”  
  
“So then it’s safe to assume your parents’ worked for the government?”  
  
“Ok where did you get that assumption?” Danny was having a hard time following Vlad’s logic, tenuous to non-existent as it was to him.  
  
Vlad had to suppress the urge to roll his eyes. “Honestly Daniel it was rather simple. The kind of energy necessary to create a ghost hybrid is extreme. Far beyond what someone could get in exposure to even the most active of ghost hauntings or weak points. There is only one machine I know that is capable of producing that kind of power, and it was confiscated by the University of Wisconsin after my own accident. As any consolation, it was nonfunctional when they got their hands on it, but the proto-portal and its schematics were taken and placed under university property.” He explained calmly. “I’m sure those government hacks, the Guys in White, would love to take a look at the schematics and try and create a working replica. Knowing their incompetence, but determination, there are two ways for things to have played out. They could have failed consistently in small ways, building up an excess of ectoplasm on this side of the barrier that they then ruthlessly experimented on you with.”  
  
Danny felt a small shiver run down his spine at the thought. He hadn’t even considered that as an option.  
  
“The second is one spectacular failure, something relatively explosive, that exposed you to a lot of energy at once. Considering, that not only did you claim it was an accident, which I believe by the way, _and_ the fact only the government would have access to the kind of technology needed, the rest of the ghost hunting community is frankly light-years behind, it necessarily follows that your parents worked for the government before they died, likely in the same explosion that gave you your powers.” Vlad picked Jasmine out of the swing and sat down in another one next to Danny. “Am I close little badger?”  
  
_Not even. But I have to admit, there are some serious glimmers of how it actually went down in that tale._ “Um, well…close enough?” Danny made a note to have other people fill in the details for him in the future, it made lying so much easier. “Mind telling me how you figured it was my _parents_ working for the government, and not me sneaking into a lab or something?”  
  
“Simple enough. You are both incredibly awkward and comfortable around ghost hunters.” The look Danny was giving him was priceless. “What I mean is; you told me you used to fight ghost regularly in your hometown, but being around Maddie and Jack makes you nervous, and not just because they like to shoot at ghosts either. From there, it follows your own parents’ hunted ghosts; where else would a kid your age get the practice? It also explains why their whole house makes you uneasy.” Vlad paused to look over at Danny. “Reminds you of home right?”  
  
_You have no idea how much. I’m so glad I haven’t told him any real details from my life, or I’d be royally boned._ Danny replied mentally.  
  
Vlad sighed and bounced an increasingly fussy Jasmine in his lap. “You don’t have to say anything to that. To be honest, I’m glad your powers were an accident, the alternative is horrifying.”  
  
“I’ll say. Who treats other people like glorified lab experiments?” Danny shoved thoughts of Dani away from his mind; the point was still a valid one.  
  
“Those hacks at the university hospital for one.” Vlad hissed. When he noticed Danny’s quizzical stare, he decided to share a little more. “Did I ever tell you about my time in the hospital, before my powers manifested?”  
  
Danny frowned in thought. Vlad hadn’t ever mentioned any details, not in the several months since he had known him, not that he blamed him one bit. Danny shook his head and waited for Vlad to continue.  
  
“At first, they didn’t know what to do with me. They knew I had some kind of radiation poisoning sure enough, but they didn’t know how to fix it or why it was manifesting as…” Vlad stopped and quirked his mouth into a small grimace. “In any case, for the first couple of weeks I was in so much pain, I wasn’t really all there. I was in and out of consciousness, and it took them nearly three weeks to actually stabilize me. At one point, I remember them asking about next of kin, just in case I died.”  
  
Danny felt surprise jolt through him like a bolt of lightning. He had an idea that the ecto-acne was more deadly than he originally thought, but it never hit him how serious it was.  
  
“After that, they had every specialist they could think of running in and out of the ICU. Checking samples of everything, biopsies of every organ, x-rays, dozens of monitoring equipment you name it and I had it hooked up somewhere. But that all eventually died down. After I had been in there for a solid three months, with no significant improvement, but no longer a nearly dead wreck, they handed over my case to another head doctor. They moved me out of the ICU, something I was originally glad for, and onto a floor I hadn’t heard of before then.”  
  
A dark tendril of dread slithered up Danny’s spine. This story was beginning to sound rather ominous.  
  
“I never saw the new head physician over my case, but he sent plenty of his underlings into the room for him. Since the other doctors had exhausted all of their ideas and resources on my case so far, they handed the case over to an experimental researcher in radiation studies. They re-took plenty of samples, but that wasn’t the bad part. Several of their…therapies were less like boons of medical science and more like medieval torture, but with no real clues what was wrong, let alone how to fix it, his “therapies” were as good as anything in the hospital’s eyes. In between being treated like a lab rat, and being injected with absurdly painful “remedies”, I had just about lost hope of ever getting out.” Vlad stopped when an unseasonably cold breeze curled through the area. He sighed before continuing, “Nothing they did helped, but it was the only option I had, so I went along with it.”  
  
“When did you get out the hospital?” Danny interrupted the narrative. He really didn’t need any more details about the hospital from hell.  
  
“The…symptoms from the poisoning resolved on their own, soon after my powers showed up. I checked myself out right after that; against doctors’ orders might I add.” Vlad snorted before adding, “but it’s not like they were doing much for me in any case.”      
  
Danny didn’t know what to say about the story. He had to admit, it never occurred to him how much differently his life would have gone without his best friends’ help right after the accident. If he had ended up in hospital like Vlad, or even just having tests run like crazy by his overly concerned parents. When he thought about it, the possibilities were chilling. He had gotten the easy road in a lot of ways.   
  
When Danny didn’t respond, Vlad decided to move on. “Come on, we should get home, the sun is setting.” He stood from his place next to Danny and headed back towards the park entrance.  
  
“Oh, er, yeah. Hey are you hungry, ‘cause it’s totally dinner time.”     

 

* * *

  
The sight that greeted the duo upon returning home was nothing like they expected. Maddie and Jack were still arguing, and worse, it seemed to have hit a whole ‘nother level of extreme. Danny and Vlad stood on the curb across the street, watching as bags of luggage fell from an open window at the top of Fentonworks, and onto the street below. On the sidewalk, Jack Fenton would pick up a bag and run it back inside, only to find an entirely different piece of luggage waiting for him when he returned outside. The entire time, two angry scream strain voices carried on an argument.  
  
Danny blinked at the scene before him. He’d never seen his parents act so completely nuts. Admittedly, they weren’t the most normal parents by any stretch of the imagination, but throwing things out of a window and screaming mindlessly at each other is definitely outside of his definition of normal, even with his own family.  
  
Vlad paused for only a second more before forging ahead across the street. The sooner he got to the bottom of this, the sooner he could convince the neighbors to stop rubbernecking out of the house next door, and intervene between the two overwrought adults.  
  
Danny stumbled off the curb after him, not at all ready to jump into the fray, but seeing no choice in the matter. _This is going to end badly._ He thought right before the first coherent sentence reached his ears.  
  
“Damn it! Stop throwing my things out of the window Maddie!”  
  
“Get out! What part of that don’t you understand? Get out of my house!” Maddie screeched and tossed another piece of luggage outside onto the sidewalk.  
  
Jack ran the piece back inside and continued screaming, “This is my house too damn it. I’m not going anywhere! If you want to get away from me so badly, why don’t you go to a motel or somethin’?” He picked up the newest piece and was about to run back inside with it, when he spotted Vlad and Danny crossing the street. “Vladdie! You have to help me! Maddie,” he gestured up just as another piece of luggage landed next to the trio, “she’s lost her mind!”  
  
Vlad looked up at a sweating flustered Maddie and a red faced with anger Jack and made a snap determination. _This was all Jack’s fault._ So he acted accordingly. _I need to get them away from each other, and since this is obviously Jack’s doing, he’ll be the one leaving._ “Jack what in the world is going on?”  
  
Danny snuck behind the two adults on the sidewalk outside, spiriting himself and his currently infant older sister inside the house, and away from some of the loud insanity. Unfortunately, he could still hear all of the arguments from the living room, and it was driving him up the wall.  
  
Jasmine was no better off, the combination of fatigue, hunger, and the buzzing tension in the air, made her a nearly tearful mess.  
  
Danny noticed his pint sized future older sister about to break into tears, and decided to find a location a lot quieter somewhere in the house. The only place he could think of was the basement/lab, and considering the current atmosphere it was a good choice. With barely a moment’s hesitation, Danny plunged down the steps into the Fentons’ basement; Jasmine nestled securely in his arms.  
  
Back upstairs Maddie and Jack had completely ignored Vlad’s presence and gone back to screaming, now significantly more hoarsely, at one another.  
  
“Jack, I can’t stand to look at you another minute right now, just go!”  
  
“Why should I? This is my house; I’m not going anywhere. If you don’t want to look at me, then get out of my house!”  
  
“Jack perha-” Vlad attempted to interrupt.  
  
“Why should I be the one to leave when _you’re_ the one who fucked up?”  
  
“I didn’t do anything wrong!”  
  
“And still you refuse to admit spending all of our money, with no savings in the bank, on Axiom’s garage sale garbage wasn’t a mistake! What am I supposed to feed my baby Jack? Screws and circuitry!” Maddie glared down from the second story window, and tossed another piece of luggage out.  
  
“I don’t know, whose fault is it we have no savings? No one told you to buy new clothes you selfish _bitch_!”  
  
“And what was I supposed to wear Jack? _Rags_? All of my stuff was nearly 4 years old, worn out because it was already from the Salvation Army, and didn’t fit because my shape is different after having Jasmine.”  
  
“Yeah maybe so, but that doesn’t mean you needed to buy stuff from the department store.”  
  
“After you splurged on six new jumpsuits and the components for an ecto-defense system we could have built from scratch for ¼ of the price? Am I not _allowed_ to buy anything nice for myself?” Jack opened his mouth to respond, but Maddie interrupted, “That still doesn’t excuse you spending Vlad’s money to buy shit from Axiom instead of groceries.”  
  
“We’ll find more money b-”  
  
“Where Jack? From the ethos? We have no savings; the mortgage is coming up due, as are the utilities. We have two gaping holes in our roof in the middle of the summer rainy season, and No. _Fucking_. Food. What are we supposed to do till next month?” Maddie stomped her foot loud enough to be heard on the street below, waiting for an answer.  
  
“I’m sure Vladdie- Wait V-man now that you’re here I can ask you, can I borrow about 2000 dollars until next month?”  
  
Vlad stood flabbergasted on the street next to Jack. Who in the world asked to borrow that kind of money from a basically homeless man on such short notice? “Jack…I…” Vlad scuffed the heel of his shoe against the sidewalk and tried to think of a proper response. He shook his head before replying, “Jack, I’d love to help, but I don’t have that kind of money to give you. Even if I wanted, I still have bills of my own to pay, so I don’t have the money available right now. I mean, maybe in a couple of weeks, two, I’d be ab-”  
  
“You see? So what are you going to do about our cash problems?” Maddie had walked down the stairs, tired of screaming out of a window, and was standing in the living room.  
  
“Well, I have a few inventions I could sell.” Jack crossed his arms.  
  
“Which ones? We don’t have the supplies to build any more of our schematics, and the ones we do have won’t be ready for sale before the bills are due.”  
  
“Well I don’t know Mads, but it’ll be ok.”  
  
“The world doesn’t run on rainbows and happy thoughts Jack.”  
  
“Oh that’s right; it runs on cute dress skirts and red trampy lipstick.”  
  
“Hold on the both of you!” Vlad interceded before the fight ratcheted back up into furious scream-a-thon territory.  
  
Maddie and Jack’s heads swiveled Vlad’s direction.  
  
“This is going to get us nowhere. Now I appreciate the fact you are both angry, and that this is really none of my business. On the other hand, the two of you have been fighting for hours, and you still don’t have the money to pay for anything. Let’s say it is safe to assume screaming isn’t going to cause money to appear alright?” Vlad held out his hands, palms up, willing the gesture to placate the quarreling couple.  
  
Maddie sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “Vlad’s right Jack, we can’t keep this up all night.”  
  
“Yeah that’s true Mads, a-”  
  
“But you still aren’t staying here tonight.”  
  
“Wait one Goddamn-“  
  
“Jack! Can I speak with you for a moment?” Vlad grasped the orange clad ghost hunter around the wrist, and forcefully drug him off.  
  
“Yeah what’s up V-man? Listen, I know I asked for a lot of money a little bit ago, and there’s no way I could really ask you to give that much, but maybe just a few hundred-”  
  
“That’s not what this is about.”  
  
Jack’s eyebrows shot up and he motioned for Vlad to continue.  
  
“Jack I think you really should spend the night in a motel.”  
  
“Vladdie-”  
  
“Just hear me out!” Vlad turned his back to the increasingly impatient looking Maddie, wanting this to look like it was completely Jack’s idea. “I’ll give you the money to stay in a motel for two days. It’ll give you both some time to cool off, and it’ll make her miss you more if she’s staying here without you right?”  
  
“Well I gu-”  
  
“And I’m sure you will show up with a heartfelt apology and some flowers and chocolates right when she’s missing you most.” Vlad sent Jack a covert nudge and wink.  
  
“Oh! Right, that’s a great idea Vladdie, glad you-”  
  
“ _You._ ”  
  
“Oh, uh, I thought of it. I don’t really want to leave her alone with Jazzy though, what if a ghost shows up?”  
  
“Oh I promise me and Daniel will take great care of them. And it’ll only be for two days at most. As they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder.”  
  
“Yeah that’s true, ok V-man, I’ll take you-my advice and make scarce for a day or so. Then come back with a huge romantic gesture and a teddy bear for Jazzy. Yo-or _I_ have the best ideas.” Jack paused before slapping Vlad on the back. “Thanks for reminding me of them Vlad.” He was honestly grateful, who could ask for a better best friend.  
  
“Oh you’re very welcome, I just don’t know what I’d do if the two of you couldn’t get along.” _Like perhaps marry Maddie and perform inappropriate, for public conversation, actions with her._  
  
Jack walked around Vlad and strode towards his wife. “Listen baby, I know you’re upset with me, and I understand that. I guess it wouldn’t be so bad to spend the night in a motel, and I wouldn’t want you leaving the house and being uncomfortable. I’ll grab some things and be on my way for the night before all of the places fill up.” Jack picked up two piece of luggage off of the floor. He wasn’t sure what was in them, but since Maddie had been emptying the drawers of his things to stuff into suitcases, he was sure there’d be more than enough clothes for a day or two.  
  
Maddie watched him grab a few more things out of the bathroom for good measure, before loading it all into the RV to set off.  
  
“So I guess I’ll see you Tuesday night.” Jack stopped when his wife scrunched up her face before nodding slowly. “I love ya’ baby and I’ll miss you.” Jack leaned over and gave his wife a good-bye kiss, before peeling off in “Jack” driving style down the street, trashcan crashes announcing his retreat.  
  
Maddie left out a deep breath into the gloom of the falling night, walking back into her much quieter, but much emptier feeling house. She knew her husband meant well, but sometimes his behavior made their relationship harder. He was so out there all the time, and he barely paid attention to finances and food, worrying more on the next great invention or discovery. And while that was fine in college, and single life, there were some things more important than even the best ghost discoveries on the planet. And if Jack didn’t learn to reorganize his priorities to include more mundane things, it would put strain on their relationship. She flopped down on the couch and glanced at the clock. _Only 8pm, and it feels like midnight. What a nightmare of a day._ Maddie shifted her glance over to the top of the basement stairs, where she heard steps echoing up the stairwell.  
  
Danny finally heard the loud resonating voices from upstairs disappear. He had waited a few extra minutes, to be sure it was over and not just a lull, before peeking up the stairs. A few more seconds of waiting had afforded him not a single sound of aggravation, so he figured it was safe to come out now.  
  
“So that’s where you two were hiding.” Vlad said as the pair reappeared onto the ground level.  
  
“Has the air raid stopped? Last I heard suit case bombs were raining from the sky.”  
Maddie crossed her arms and frowned. “I’d prefer it if you didn’t go into the lab, it can be dangerous down there. At least don’t take Jasmine with you, there are fumes in there I don’t want her exposed to.” She decided to ignore that air raid comment.  
  
“That’s funny coming from someone who didn’t notice her child disappeared for several hours.” Danny retorted. Instead of the fierce glare and stinging verbal rebuttal he was expecting, his mother broke down into tears. Danny started at the intense crying jag his minor comment had set off.  
  
Vlad sent Danny a monstrous glare before sliding next to Maddie on the couch.  
  
Danny was waiting on the periphery of the scene when Vlad sent him a cold look that had him retreating up the stairs; baby sized elder sister in his arms.  
  
Vlad settled into the couch next to a heaving Maddie. He hadn’t expected her to take the comment well after her fight earlier, but this was a little more than what he had anticipated. Vlad floundered around for something to say. He wasn’t even sure it was what _Danny_ had said was the problem, so he was at a loss for how to help. More importantly, Maddie made him nervous as all hell, so making coherent sentences around her was a struggle on a good day. “Maddie-”  
  
“Oh God I’m so sorry!” Maddie sniffed through her tears. “I don’t mean to just turn into a water fountain on you, I’m just so flustered and tired after everything that’s happened today.”  
  
_Bingo._ At least he could work with that. “It’s alright Maddie really. I’m sure you’re more than a little upset after today, and I’m sure Daniel didn’t mean anything by that comment. I’m more worried about how you’re feeling than being in the room with you crying. I mean you’re obviously upset, so that’s what matters.”  
  
Maddie rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand, smearing some of her mascara across her cheeks. She wrapped her arms around her middle, more out of comfort than chill. “I’ll be alright. I mean, I’m upset now, because Jack still doesn’t seem to understand what he did wrong, but I’m sure after he thinks about it more, everything will be fine.” She let out a shuddering breath and leaned back into the soft comfort of her furniture.  
  
Vlad took a deep breath; it was now or never after all. A little boldness here could pay off big time later. A voice somewhere in the back of his head told him this was _seriously_ wrong, but he stuffed it into a box. There were more important things to worry about at the moment. He carefully slid an arm around Maddie’s shoulders. He barely suppressed a jump of surprise when instead of just accepting his gesture; she leaned deeply into his embrace, sobs coming back in full force. Now, more alarmed about the return of her tears than his awkwardness, Vlad wrapped both arms fully around her form, pressing her shaking body into a full hug.  
  
Maddie snuggled deeper into the hug, happy for the emotional comfort it provided. There was a good chance she had just messed up her relationship with her husband on a few levels with some of the things she accused him of and said over the last few hours. At the moment, she only wanted to relax and forget all of that just happened. She sighed as the last of the sobs left her calm, and in no hurry to extract herself from the warmth of the hug. Maddie could hear Vlad’s heart racing with her head leaned against his chest, and could only smile to herself. _Nervous as ever,_ _at least some things never change._ She pulled back gently and looked up at him. “Thank you, I needed that hug.” She watched as his face tinged with pink. _Will never stop being fun._  
  
“Yeah of course, any time.” He realized he should probably be removing his arms about now, but there was no way in hell that was happening without her asking. He felt his heart skip a beat when she leaned in to lay her head against his shoulder instead of scooting away.  
  
“You want to eat dinner, watch a bad comedy, and pretend the rest of the world doesn’t suck for a few hours?” Maddie asked.  
  
“Yeah, that sounds like a great plan.”  
  
_Maybe for a few hours…_  
  
_God please._  
  
_…just let me pretend._ Their thoughts mirrored one another.

 

* * *

  
By the time he had rounded the corner into his room, Danny was barely holding back from hyperventilating. It was happening again, right in front of him this time. It didn’t matter that the circumstances had changed. Sure they weren’t in Vlad’s apartment, considering it was a piece of burnt-out slag. Sure he was nearly entirely sure that the fight was different than the one they had ultimately had, because the crazy circumstances dictated it, but it didn’t matter. _Nothing matters; well nothing I can change matters._ Danny thought ruefully.  
  
The truth of the matter was, even if he could changes something in the past, minor details, the exact way something happened, no matter what he did, Danny felt like some general events would still occur. Even though the argument was about something else, it still as big and happened. Even though Vlad’s house no longer existed, his mom and dad were still separated with his mom downstairs, emotionally needy and vulnerable, with a circling vulture of a Vlad hanging around.    
  
_If no matter what I do, some things are just meant to happen, then maybe fate is real._ And he wasn’t sure what was more disturbing about that thought. The fact that it meant people had no real control over their circumstances, or the fact his mission was essentially a sham that put his very existence in danger for no reason. 

**…then destiny must exist.**


	9. If Danny Knew the Butterfly Effect…

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time runs outs, and Danny sees the Future he's made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again the chapter needed some editing so >.> not the once a day schedule. No one minds right? So this is the last chapter of the first Arc, the "Danny's in the Past" Arc. It's time to head back to the Future...

Waking up the next day was the most awkward time Danny could remember. If he thought living with Vlad, followed by living with his parents was bad; then living with Vlad and his mom _after_ his parents had a fight was some kind of cruel and unusual punishment. He hadn’t slept at all last night, his thoughts wrenching even the most determined wishes for sleep from the fore of his mind. It didn’t help that right below him were the sounds of his mother and Vlad getting along swimmingly until well after midnight. 

He wasn’t sure when Vlad had come back into the room, but Danny finally noticed him there as the pink streaks of dawn crossed the sky. Looking at him sleep peacefully, the deep distrust and near hatred Danny harbored for his future enemy came back full force. There were times when he could forget everything that Vlad was, and the reason he was even here in this time. After last night, though, everything was in too bright shades of black and white, and Danny was beginning to miss the gentle moral grey scale he had allowed himself to live in. He rolled over with a huff, the bed creaking under him.  
  
“You awake, little badger?”  
  
“No.” Danny threw the pillow over his head, and willed Vlad to leave him alone for a moment.  
  
Vlad sighed from his position on the floor near the foot of the bed. “It’s ok; I couldn’t sleep last night either.”  
  
_Yeah, but likely not for the same reason I couldn’t._ Danny realized.  
  
“Are ya’ hungry? I know this is a little early for you, but something tells me, it’s never too early for your stomach.” Vlad shifted into a sitting position on the ground, looking up at the still bedding burrowed Danny.  
  
Danny was tempted to tell him off right then and there. Who the fuck was he to just get up and cook food in _his_ house like he owned the place? But his stomach and tongue interrupted his mental complaints. His stomach reminded him of the lack of dinner from the night before, and his tongue that Vlad was a pretty good cook. He grumbled at his body’s complete betrayal, and curled up deeper into bed. There was no way he was eating food Vlad made today, on principal. He had to admit, he hadn’t been there during the rest of the fight the night before, but he didn’t need to be. There was no way his father would just leave without some “help” from Vlad to convince him. _Vlad has some nerve, making moves on my emotionally vulnerable mom. What a spineless, gutless, no good, honorless-_  
  
“Daniel? Did you hear me?”  
  
Danny narrowed his eyes under the pillow, but otherwise was completely disinclined to respond. He snapped his glare up into Vlad’s face, when he felt the pillow disappear from its position.  
  
“Alright, alright. Not a morning person, I get it. I’ll leave you alone.” Vlad dropped the pillow back down onto Danny’s face before stretching. “I’m going downstairs, no use in pretending to sleep when I can’t. I’ll leave you something to reheat later.” Vlad stalked from the room, quietly closing the door behind him.  
  
_I wish you would actually get it. It would save me so much trouble._ Danny moved under the sheets, and felt a distinct tug around his neck. Suddenly angrier than he could recall being in recent memory, he shot up in bed.  The time traveling teen glanced down at the gold pocket watch with blue initials with deep distain. It was the only thing tethering him to this time, if he took it off now… _No._ He cut off the thoughts quickly. He still had a job to do, and as much as he couldn’t stand Vlad at the moment, no longer having him as an enemy would be worth every headache now. Danny was about to tuck the wayward piece back under his shirt when something interesting caught his eye. He hadn’t really examined the thing closely since he got here. Sure enough, he’d seen one up close before, a couple of times, but now that he looked at this one…  
  
The watch had a latch on the side he’d never noticed. Maybe it was a new addition, or perhaps he had never noticed before now, but at the moment he was insanely curious. His anger temporarily forgotten, Danny started running the piece through his hands, looking for more grooves or latches, or other anomalies in the previously thought solid smooth surface. Finding nothing but the single latch on the side, Danny decided to satisfy his curiosity. After a few moments of fumbling, the latch clicked and the “front” of the watch opened to reveal the face. Danny carefully studied the new surface.  
  
It looked like an ordinary watch. Engraved onto the face were numbers in the typical design of an analog clock. They were bright iridescent blue against the shining gold background, and other than the obvious ghostly glow emanating from the surface, it was a normal pocket watch.  
  
Danny was about to close front of the watch again, forgetting all about the uninteresting inner surface, when some movement caught his eye. Glancing back at the blue numbering, Danny watched with mild curiosity as the second hand moved counterclockwise, backwards, across the surface. Now much more interested, he inspected the softly glowing face of the watch. As the second hand wound backwards, it moved the displayed time closer and closer to midnight on the clock face. When nothing else was forthcoming, Danny was about to dismiss the oddity as a minor quirk of its creator’s, when a vague sense of familiarity settled over his person. There was something about this clock face and midnight that was important. Danny slipped from under the sheets and padded barefoot towards the bedroom door, still pondering the new information, when the reason suddenly hit him. The first time he had seen the medallion, it had read midnight or noon, depending on who you asked. Now the hands where winding back down towards midnight again, and Clockwork’s words suddenly came back to him.  
  
_I have set the Medallion back with enough time for you to do your task. Use your time wisely, Phantom. You will not get another opportunity._  
  
The ominous words, so seemingly unimportant at the time spoken, were proving to be another hint in disguise. The clock was running down to midnight, because his time was running out.  
  
_Great another roundabout clue from Clockwork, too bad I didn’t notice it until now._  Danny mulled over the new information while staring at the clock. It was only six hours until midnight, and if his calculations were correct, that would make it exactly one week to the minute he was back in this time. Though that didn’t make exact sense, seeing as the first time he remembered was around 5:00pm on last Sunday, and the time limit pointed to his disappearance being a little after 1pm, there was a good chance he’d spent a few hours unconscious after the time trip. _Also great. I find out the exact time limit I’m working with, and I only have a few hours left to use. Would this qualify for a posting on FML? ‘Woke up today, and found out my deadline is much shorter than I thought. Now I have a few hours to fit in a few lifetimes of interaction or my entire trip was a bust. FML.’_  Danny finished mentally composing his entry with a grimace. He really didn’t have time to waste on grousing like this. Resolving to put what time he had to use, Danny quickly got dressed and headed downstairs. He couldn’t go ignoring Vlad with so little time left.  
  
The sound of quiet chatter ghosted from the kitchen and around the corner to the bottom of the stairs. Danny took a breath and stuffed down his negative emotions, before rounding the edge to the entrance of the kitchen.    
  
Vlad sat at the kitchen table, calmly enjoying a newspaper with a strong brewed cup of coffee.  
  
Maddie was pushing around the last of the fixing for breakfast, long auburn hair tied back into a high ponytail to cook.  
  
Danny slid into a seat across from Vlad at the table, willing himself to forget about his backstabbing attempted wife stealing home-wrecking ways so he could get his mission done with. He was getting sick of this time and the lies staying here entailed.  
  
“Good morning Daniel. Did your empty stomach wake you up again?” Vlad flipped another page in the paper, coolly skimming the sparse business section.  
  
“Yeah something like that…” Danny grumbled and rubbed the back of his neck. “So Vlad-”  
  
“I hope you like French toast Daniel, ‘cause I’m making a bushel of ‘em.” Maddie interrupted from the stove.  
  
“Yeah that would be great.” Danny responded before looking back at the reading Vlad. He was about to continue his last thought, when he noticed his sister missing. “Where’s Jasmine?” He voiced his concern.   
  
“She’s still sleeping. Seems all the noise yesterday tuckered her out. Knowing her, she’ll be up in a few hours.” Maddie handed Danny a plate filled to the brim with powered French toast. “What do you want to drink?” She asked as she headed for the fridge. She hadn’t gotten much sleep last night herself. Between how upset she was over the argument with Jack, and the resulting “cool off period” afterward filled with campy movies, junk food, cheap beer, and great conversation, she had crawled into bed around 3am last night. _Well, more like carried._ She thought with a suppressed giggle. _Vlad’s a riot drunk; I’m going to have to liquor him up more often in the future._ She thought as she grabbed the requested apple juice from the ice box. She walked the bottle over to the table for Danny to fill his glass with.  
  
Danny grabbed the container with muttered thanks, still trying to figure out a way to get Vlad alone with him before lunchtime that day. He was coming up short on ideas, but chances were a full belly and another hour to full awaken would bring the idea he needed.  
  
Maddie settled into her seat next to Vlad before asking, “Don’t you have to go in at the lab?”  
  
“No. I called them Sunday morning. I told them I likely wasn’t going to be able to get in until this Thursday with all of the craziness that happened, so I’m off until then.”  
  
“Explains why you’re still here.” Danny said around another forkful of toast.  
  
Maddie passed Danny a confused look across the table.  
  
“Usually he’s gone well before dawn to get to work. It’s like 7am, and he’s still here, so he must not have been going.” He explained before plunging back into his toast.  
  
“Not like I would have had the energy to go anywhere after last night.” Vlad set down the newspaper and headed over to the stove to fix himself a plate of the growing cold French toast.  
  
Danny practically choked on his food when he heard that. Admittedly, his mind was probably not working full steam at the moment, but that was vague enough to imply all kinds of messed up stuff. _Don’t think about it. Don’tthink aboutit. Don’tthinkaboutit!_ Danny coached himself. Too bad his imagination seemed determined to send him the worse possible “cannot un-see” material. He _had_ to ask. “What do you mean?”  
  
“ Maddie,” Vlad started while sending her a covert glance, “decided last night was a good time to watch crappy old sci-fi B movies and get me drunk.”  
  
“Now now, if I remember you were the one who bought the beer last night.” Maddie pointed out reasonably.  
  
“What was I supposed to do? Bad science movies drive me to drink. Besides, you were the one who said to pick it up with the Chinese last night.” Vlad returned to the table, another steaming cup of coffee in conjunction with the plate of toast.  
  
“Maybe so, but you invented that drinking game. What was it? A swig of beer every time someone used a science term or definition blatantly incorrectly?” Maddie giggled around another fork full of food.  
  
“No! It was every time they defied the basic laws of physics while claiming to do the opposite…or maybe you’re right, it’s hard to remember which one we played first. In any case,” Vlad waved off Maddie’s continued giggles, “between the movies and the alcohol, I was in no shape to think this morning.”  
  
“You sure? Because you were pretty mentally on the ball at 2am this morning, when you gave me a practical dissertation about how wrong ‘ Them!’ was.”  
  
“Only after you wobbled your way through an indignant ripping of ‘Ghostbusters’.” Vlad countered.  
  
“Oh come on Vlad! That movie was the worse interpretation of ghosts I’ve ever seen.”  
  
“Oh no, you’ve convinced me Maddie. It’s sent the public imagining back into the Stone Age. We will never recover as proper hunters because of their poor portrayal.” Vlad held up his hands as Maddie playfully punched him in the shoulder for the comment.    
  
Danny was trying not to gag. Their sweet banter was driving him up the wall. It was almost as bad as the first time he had to put up with it last Wednesday. It likely wouldn’t be so annoying, if his father wasn’t in the dog house at the moment.  
  
“Oh shut up!” Maddie laughed when Vlad dodged another swift punch aimed at his shoulder.  
  
“I, madam, don’t have to put up with this abuse.” Vlad joked while wriggling away from another punch.  
  
“So Vlad, I was wondering if we could hang out later, just the two of us?” Danny was more than happy to break up the currently nauseating interaction. _If the two of them don’t stop this soon, my breakfast’s going to reappear._ Danny thought, willingly Vlad to take his offer straight out.  
  
Vlad turned towards Danny, hopping out of his chair to clean off the table. “I don’t see why not Daniel.” He paused when Maddie walked out of the room, the baby monitor springing to life with Jasmine’s cries. “Is there anything in particular you wanted to do?”  
  
“I just needed to talk to you, privately, about some matters.” Danny was never good at being vague and evasive about a subject. Talking around things and double speak was something he didn’t really appreciate. Why do it when you could just tell the whole truth?  
  
Luckily enough, Vlad guessed as to the subject and continued on undeterred. “I’d be more than happy to help you with your resume for the job search.” He said as Maddie came back into the kitchen with Jasmine balanced on a hip. “I do have more _experience_ with it, so it should be no problem.”  
  
Danny silently thanked Vlad’s subtly. He would have never thought of that substitute. “Yeah ok, you want to leave now?”  
  
“Now Daniel?” Vlad looked over at the clock above the stove. It was only 8:30am, so he wasn’t sure what the rush was, but maybe Danny had more to share than he thought.  
  
“Well,” Danny stalled and glanced over at the clock, the weight of his own time limit clicking in his mind synchronously with the second hand, “I guess it can wait until 11o’clock or so, but I wanted to grab lunch with you at the same time.”  
  
“Alright Daniel, I’ll be ready to go then.” Vlad leaned over and kissed Jasmine good morning.  
  
Danny was once again struck by how out of place he was in his own house, with his own family. It sparked the buried fire of his anger that he once again had to smother ruthlessly. He’d be back home soon, and not only would everything be back to normal, it would be better. Vlad wouldn’t be kicking the crap out of him and trying to marry his mom, and he’d have his family back. He had to believe that, or the last week of ‘fun’ adventures in past-land would be worthless. Nodding once, Danny left the kitchen to walk back upstairs to get ready. He couldn’t go into this all willy-nilly. He couldn’t reveal too much, but he had to be convincing. But most importantly, of all, he had to do it all before the clock struck one o’clock. _This must be how Cinderella felt._ Danny considered before he passed the threshold to his future room.  
  
The next two and a half hours passed much faster than he had hoped. Danny had a basic plan of attack all laid out, but the details were still a little foggy. He also didn’t have much in the way of retorts or ways to keep the discussion on track, but with the time he had to prepare, it wasn’t too shabby. He saw Vlad lacing up his shoes by the front door from his position at the bottom of the stairs. The teen really had no idea how this conversation would actually go, but he didn’t have the time to contemplate another plan. He’d reopened the watch, to see if it really was counting down, and to his dismay it was. It read out around 3 hours till midnight now, or because it was going backwards, about 3am.  
  
Vlad snatched up the keys to the front door before gesturing over to Danny. “You ready to go?” He stuffed the keys into his pocket as he watched an increasingly anxious Danny.  
  
_No. I’m not ready to leave. I need more time, but life’s never fair._ Danny took a deep breath before answering, “Of course I am.” Really, it was now or never.  
  
Vlad and Danny crossed the street heading towards the park from the day before. It was relatively close, and more significantly, likely empty. They had already picked up some cheap Tasty Burger, the predecessor to the Nasty Burger, food. All that was left was a place to talk.  
  
With his head in the clouds, work on the best outline he could create for the ensuing conversation, the ten blocks passed in a blink of an eye. _It is true; time is relative._ Danny pondered darkly. Just earlier this morning, listening to his mother and Vlad flirt, it had barely inched by. Now that he was on a time limit, and he needed more it, time was racing away from him, carrying the proverbial sand away like hurricanes moved dirt. The entrance to the park appeared on his left, the gaping maw reminding him how deep a hole he had dug for himself the last week. There was so much to explain, and nowhere near enough time to do it in. Danny glanced at the timepiece around his neck one final time, before heading inside. It was already 11:30am, and his time was draining from the familiar hourglass faster than he could shovel it back. _I hope he listens._  
  
Vlad relaxed into the wood of the picnic table across from Danny. The meeting had been sudden on Danny’s part, but he was more than willing to listen if this was about what he supposed it was. He reached into the grease streaked paper sack after his burger and fries, before handing it over to Danny.

Danny leaned over to grab the sack, and the Time Medallion slipped from under his shirt.  
  
“What’s that?” Vlad asked curious.  
  
Danny looked down at the time piece dangling on his neck before scowling. “Just a family heirloom.” He reached over, grabbed the bag, and began unwrapping the burger before jumping into the conversation he’d been dreading. “I wanted to ask you about your powers. I mean, I haven’t met anyone else with them, so I don’t know what’s normal or not.”  
  
Vlad smiled and set down his burger. “Oh just typical ghost powers, invisibility, intangibility, ecto-blasts, solid ectoplasm manifestations, ecto-shields, that kinda thing. I can’t think of anything really unusual, even the teleportation is a rarer, but normal ghost power. How about yourself?”  
  
Danny felt himself easing into the discussion. This wasn’t really related to what he needed to talk about, but he needed to work up his nerve about that. “Same. Well everything except the teleportation, and I can’t really make solid ectoplasm. Oh! But I can easily change shapes in ghost form, so like I can make a hole in my middle, or something like that.” Danny decided against mentioning his ghostly wail. It was nearly completely unique, Ember’s own vocal powers notwithstanding, and he didn’t really want questions about it coming up.  
  
“Why don’t I make good on that promise to teach you to teleport later tonight? After dinner, when it gets dark, we should be able to practice easily.”  
  
“I’d love to! But I mean, I don’t know.”  
  
“Don’t worry about anyone seeing us. The Fentons’ only have monitoring devices near their house, and anyone else in this town would be simple to avoid.”  
  
“No it’s not that, it’s just…” _I’m not going to be here to take up that offer._ “I haven’t really said anything about my accident. I mean, mine was more like an explosion,” _controlled explosion,_ “so I was wondering how Maddie and Jack are ok if they were in the same area with you.”  
  
“Oh? Well I guess that is rather incongruous isn’t it? Well our proto-portal didn’t explode or anything ghastly like that. The opening to the Ghost World wasn’t really stable. It opened for a few seconds; I could see the green swirling environment inside the portal. It was paradoxically both thick, I couldn’t see anything through the opening, and tenuous, it seemed completely gaseous despite that thickness. I haven’t seen anything like it really. It was more like a very dense green fog.” Vlad paused to finish off the last of his fries.  “Anyway, like I said the opening wasn’t stable. It closed in a matter of seconds, but instead of simply blinking out of existence like a natural portal, it…” Vlad stopped searching for the right phrase, “it, the energy needed to hold the portal open flashed outward when it suddenly destabilized. It wasn’t like an explosion, because the structure holding it was sound, unlike I suspect what the Guys in White made; it was more like a focused ray of highly energetic ecto-energy. I was standing right in front of the portal when the opening collapsed and so…” Vlad trailed off, the ending obvious.  
  
Danny frowned, he needed to swing the conversation around this way, but he wasn’t going to enjoy it. “Well, I didn’t really have any symptoms of spectral radiation poisoning or whatever, so do you have any idea why that is?” Danny watched Vlad’s shoulder’s square and his eyes narrow. He really didn’t want to go here, but there was only 45 minutes left, and he needed to get this out.  
  
“The major symptoms from the accident weren’t from the explosive spectral energy itself. The-Do you know how artificial portals are made?”  
  
Danny shook his head no, and glanced down at his wristwatch. He truly needed the Cliff Note’s version of this explanation.  
  
“One of the most important components is a filtration system. A lot of the ectoplasm from the Ghost World isn’t pure energy. It’s contaminated with small pieces of otherworldly…DNA of sorts. Other than the energy needed to punch through a natural weak point in the fabric between the worlds, the filtration system is the most important part. Without it, the opening won’t stay stable, the strands of debris block or pinch off the newly formed opening. It’s why the vast majority of natural portals last only seconds.”  
  
“Vast majority?” Danny interrupted.  
  
“Yes. There are some natural permanent openings into the Ghost World. For example-”  
  
“You were saying about the filtration system?” He had to stay on track, half an hour to go.  
  
“Yes well,” Vlad looked a little confused with how fast Danny changed subjects, but continued quickly. “In the proto-portal, not only was it not powerful enough to support a stable permanent opening, but the filtration system was compromised.”  
  
“How?”  
  
Vlad grit his teeth, as the memory of Jack’s extreme incompetence flitted back to the front of his mind. “Jack.” Vlad hissed. He took a deep breath to steady his nerves before continuing, “instead of using the proper filtration fluid, he poured diet coke into the machine. Even if the machine would have held out for a few hours normally, with no filtration fluid, it failed almost immediately, and in the most spectacular way possible.” He crossed his arms and tapped one foot against the ground, wanting to get out some of his agitation about the memory.  
  
“Wow. I mean, that sucks and all, but it can’t be so bad. I mean you got ghost powers out of it so-“  
  
“You really think that makes up for losing three years of my life to probing, prodding, and pain? And let me tell you, I’ve finally come to terms with my half-ghost status, but when my powers first showed up I was distraught, to put it lightly. I’ve wanted to hunt ghosts since my freshman year of college, and I’ve always been curious about the supernatural, and _now_ I was very thing I wanted to capture. Worse, I didn’t have any control over my powers. Every second was a constant fight to avoid them manifesting in front of someone else. God knows what they would have done to me if they found out. And to top it all off, that bumbling buffoon had the nerve, the utter _gall_ to court the woman I love right in front of me. That-”  
  
“Wait _what_?” Now Danny was confused. As far as he knew, his dad had no idea about Vlad’s feelings.  
  
“When I was first admitted into the hospital, Maddie came to visit me often. I was too sick at first to really appreciate the company, but after the first month there, when I was more awake than unconscious, it was the highlight of my day. At first it was just her visiting, but then Jack got around to seeing about me.” Vlad’s tone turned from soft to nasty in the course of a single sentence. “At first I didn’t want to be bothered with him, but he insisted and wanted to apologize, and did, multiple times. I was still sore about the whole thing, my life being in danger still, but I was willing to think about accepting it. I was about to let the matter go, when he came up to my room late one night, just before visiting hours were over. He said he was too excited to let it wait until the morning, so I let him up. What he said next, ruined any chance for forgiveness from me. He told me, he’d just invited Maddie out to dinner…that he was in love with her. I was speechless. Before I could think of something to say, he storms out of the room, promising all the sordid details when he returned. To make matters worse, every time they visited after that, I could watch them like a time-lapse film, falling deeper in love with each other. It was utterly sickening. For awhile I wasn’t sure what was going to kill me first, the poisoning or the heartbreak.” Vlad’s eyes flashed red, threatening with a look that could set something ablaze.  
  
“I’m sure he didn’t, I mean there’s no way he-”  
  
“That he what? Knew about how I felt? Are you trying to tell me a 14 year old boy can figure out I’m in love, but my supposed best friend couldn’t?”  
  
“I well-maybe! Jack isn’t the most perceptive person on the planet.”  
  
“And you’re a mind-reading deep thinker.” Vlad replied drolly.  
  
“No! But-”  
  
“Why are you defending him?” Vlad practically screamed across at Danny. “This man ruined my life, stole the woman I love, and is apparently more irresponsible than the federal government with a budget. What is there to defend?”  
  
“Jack is not a bad person! He may be goofy, and kinda absent-minded, but he’s a great inventor and a dedicated father.”  
  
“You said the like you’re related or something.” Vlad sneered.  
  
Danny bit his lip to keep from responding. He _was_ “related or something” after all. “All I’m saying is, maybe you should give him the benefit of the doubt.”  
  
“I don’t see why I should.”  
  
“Because all of that anger and hate is going to drive you crazy. I mean just look at yourself. You can’t think about him without wanting to blow something up, or snapping at whomever is talking about him.” Danny sighed and glanced at his watch, ten minutes to go, and the goal line was still a mile away. “Listen, I know you hate this guy, and I understand, _really_.” Danny emphasized the last word in response to Vlad’s skeptical look. “I can’t stand my foster father, he’s practically responsible for my parent’s deaths, but even I know I can’t spend all my life hating him. If you feel this strongly about something, it blocks out everything else.”  
  
Vlad rolled his eyes. He wasn’t about to be lectured by a kid. “Come on Dan-”  
  
“No listen to me.” Five minutes left. He had to hurry now. “I know you say you love Maddie-”  
  
“And I do whether or not-”  
  
“Stop interrupting!” Four minutes. “Alright, I know you do, but just hear me out. How can you have room inside to hate Jack so much and love Maddie so much at the same time? There’s only so much room in one heart, and on some level you have to have stronger feels for one of them.”  
  
“Are you-”  
  
“Vlad shut up, _damn_ it!” Only two minutes now; had to make it count. “If it came down to choosing, to picking which of the emotions were stronger, which one is the most important? Would it be hating Jack, or loving Maddie? If you didn’t have a choice but pick one, which one would it be?”  
  
Vlad shook his head in confusion. “Daniel, what are you talking about?”  
  
_63 seconds…_  
  
_62 seconds…_  
  
_61 seconds…I will **not** fail._  
  
“I’m…I’m saying, my existence depends on your answer! If you can’t pick which one is more important, I’ll-I’ll never exist!”  
  
“Don’t be ridiculous!”  
  
“You know that Medallion I showed you earlier? Well it’s a time traveling device clean out of  Back to the Future. That’s where I’m from, and if you can’t forgive Jack, then I’ll never be born, and we’ll never meet. My time here is almost up.” Danny pulled out the Medallion again, clicking the latch to expose the count down inside. His explanation was a bold faced lie, but it was the best he could come up with. The timer was down to only 10 seconds now.  
  
“Daniel, I-” Vlad started before Danny began to bleed away. He was turning more invisible by the microsecond. “Alright. I’ll do it, just don’t-” He stopped short as Danny blinked out of existence. “Disappear…” Vlad finished. He hadn’t believed him until he had started vanishing. Suddenly, everything made a crazy kind of sense. He couldn’t tell him about his family, or his hometown, or anything really, because it would reveal the future. His sudden appearance, everything he knew about him and the Fentons’ _everything_ was cast in a new light. Now, he was gone, and as far as Vlad knew, he’d stay that way unless he found it in himself to let a nearly five year grudge die. It was a hard decision. But Danny’s words from earlier made it easier. _Which one is the most important? Would it be hating Jack, or loving Maddie? If you didn’t have a choice but pick one, which one would it be?”_ The decision was easy enough when put like that. If he couldn’t do both, then he’d chose love. He sighed and placed his face into his hands. _I just hope this is the right decision._

 

* * *

  
  
He was falling, drifting, and getting used to the sensations brought on from waking up after a time traveling episode. It seems his calculations were right on the money about how much time he had left. Danny sat up and looked around him. He was in the Human World at least, and from the looks of it, he was in Amity Park too. He only hazily recognized the area in his still disoriented state, but it was safe to say he was close to his house. Danny looked down at the cool dark green where he was sitting, wriggling his legs to work the feeling back into them, before glancing back up. He was met with the bright wide eyes of a child. That’s when he realized; he was still in the park right next to his own house. Danny jumped back from her startled inquisitive face as she rushed away from him. He rubbed the back of his neck, and noticed the Medallion still settled solidly around his neck. _I guess I have to take this to Clockwork in person._ Danny thought while pushing himself from the ground.  
  
It was only a few minutes’ walk from Fentonworks’, but it gave Danny plenty of time to think. There was so much about home that he missed. He could see Jazz, finally bigger and older like he remembered, sitting around near his window, nervous because he’d been gone all night. He could see his parents, so angry their faces were red promising a grounding like he’s never had. He could already hear his phone being blasted up by texts from his best friends. And despite the fact he knew he’d been gone all night, and that everyone would be furious at him, he was glad for it. Everyone being angry meant that life was how it was supposed to be. In a few days, his parents would be working on their inventions on the kitchen table. His sister would be lecturing him about needing to study and trying to meddle in his ghost hunting. His friends would be laughing and wide-eyed over his stories from the past. Most of all, his life would be normal, and to top it all off, if that trip was even remotely worth the effort, Vlad would no longer be throwing him through walls and trying to marry his mother. Danny rounded the last corner to Fentonworks’ heedless to the multiple devices that blinked to life in his wake. He drifted down the block in a preoccupied daze, before stopping to get a good look at his home. _What in the-_ “Hell?” Danny finished his thought out loud.  
  
Fentonworks’ looked nothing like it did when he left. The red brick building had been replaced by a steel and white futuristic piece. Clean and austere lines cut through the now dome shaped complex, a direct antithesis of the rectangular block that used to represent Fentonworks. Gone was the ostentatious neon sign his father had placed on the building. Gone were the Fenton RV and the majority of the normal structures for a building, like windows and doors. The building was also twice the size of the normal Fentonworks’, and Danny was left wondering how he missed the bright white building for so long.  
  
A tendril of solid dread slid down his spine and settled into his stomach. Danny bushed it off. It was entirely possible that Fentonworks’ had gotten an upgrade. The building looked high-end and expensive all of the hallmarks of Vlad. Chances were, with Vlad as an actual family friend, instead of just pretending, his parents had the money to make some serious changes. _This is actually a good sign. If everything was exactly the same, then my trip would have been for nothing. This is…good._ Danny rationalized to himself, trying to calm the ever growing pit of concern in his gut. _I just need to see my parents, to see Jazz, or even just to see Sam and Tucker. Everything will be fine then. Everything **is** fine now. Just a few more steps and you’ll be in an even cooler house than when you left._ Danny stopped in front of the only thing resembling an entrance on the pristine white dome. He took a deep breath and reached for the handle…  
  
Bright red lights and a deep booming siren echoed from the bright building, its emergency lights rivaled the bathing red of the setting sun in color. Several large crashes issued from within the structure followed by a couple of megaphones shooting from the top of the dome.  
  
_Ghost alert! Ghost alert!_ The megaphones announced into the surrounding area.  
  
Danny took a few hesitant steps back. What was going on here? Sure some of his parents’ equipment detected him everyone once in awhile, but the “battin down the hatches!” level response had never happened before. Before Danny knew what hit him, nearly half a dozen white uniform clad men had rushed from the domed building.  
  
They formed a semi-circle, pinning Danny in between the building and their quickly raised guns. “You’ve got nowhere to run ghost! We’ve got you surrounded.” The apparent leader of the quickly growing group announced.  
  
Danny turned his back to the entrance to the dome and backed away from the gun totting men. _How in the world do they know I have ghost powers? This must be a mistake._ “Ghost? There’s no ghost here.” Denial seemed like the best option at the moment.  
  
The leader scoffed and centered the gun’s sights over Danny’s chest. “You must think I’m stupid or something. You may look human, but I know as well as you do that you are a ghost hybrid. So cut the crap brat, and tell me why you’re here.”  
  
The tendril of dread that had been steadily growing in the pit of Danny’s stomach now felt more like a burning coal than a twisted knot. He wasn’t sure how or why they knew he was half ghost, but at this point it didn’t matter. Every second he stood here, more men ran up and pointed weapons at him. He had to get out of here. Danny passed his eyes over the white uniformed men, taking a quick judge of their numbers, before turning intangible and slipping through the concrete. He could hear the sharp whine and rattling booms of ecto-weapons being fired right above him, where he had been standing only seconds ago. Despite the fact these men somehow knew about his halfa status, Danny decided to transform under the pavement. Something told him it was important. With only a second more to gather his nerves, Danny rocketed, still intangible, out of the ground, flying off away from the firing men.  
  
As soon as the half ghost teen had slipped through the concrete, the men had changed tactics. They dawned goggles to counteract his invisibility, ones that detected the spectral energy a ghost gave off when exerting even the slightest amount of power, and pulled weapons designed to overcome the effects of ghostly intangibility by firing in phase with the intangible ghost. They laid down suppressive fire, to keep the ghost distracted, and waited. Soon enough, the ghost had shot back up from the pavement near them, and they were able to take several clear as day shots.  
  
Danny cried out when a couple well aimed blasts slammed into him while still intangible. That had never happened before, and quite frankly, while he previously had been nervous, now he was completely terrified. Every time he looked down, there were even more men following and shooting at him. Despite the fact he was both invisible and intangible, he had been hoping to avoid a fight at all costs, they were hot on his trail and continuing to pepper him with blasts that caused damage. Danny dropped invisibility and intangibility, they didn’t seem to be helping in any case, and poured on the speed. If he couldn’t hide from them, then he would out run them, and he was one of the fastest ghosts in the Zone.  
  
The leader of the white uniformed men watched impassively from his position inside the center of operations, the white dome. They had picked up readings that a ghost was nearby when the young man had turned down this street, but the thing about hybrids was, they were hard to detect conclusively. They had to be nearly on top of you for the equipment to sense them, all of that human got in the way of proper readings. Still, he’d been leading here for awhile now, and he’d never seen a hybrid just walk straight towards one of the ops centers like that. It was just too damn risky, and he didn’t know them to take unnecessary risks. “Energy report?” He looked over at one of his lead scientists currently crunching the data on the hybrid ghost they had just encountered.  
  
“Well, he’s definitely a hybrid alright, and his energy is pretty similar to one we have on record.”  
  
“But?”

“But, it’s not an exact match sir. Off hand, I’d say it’s nearly 95%, but that’s well below the margin of error for this machine.” The scientist narrowed his eyes and tapped a few more seconds into the key board. “The most I can say is, he’s likely related in some way to the hybrids we know, or this is a ghost very good at imitating human form.”  
  
“How likely is the second option?” The first option was nearly impossible, considering the creature’s apparent age. They kept great tabs on all of the existing hybrids.  
  
“It is possible, but not likely. That old ghost we captured in the human world ten years ago now, Spectra? She was great at imitating human form as long as she could suck energy from human beings, but even that was only to the naked eye. If there were any through scans, like the stuff we can perform, she’d only come out 35-40% human. This ghost on the other hand is a solid 50% on deep scans, which is why we know he’s a hybrid. He also looks nearly 90% on surface scans even with the use of his powers in human form, so it’s unlikely this is a ghost, unless it has talent unlike anything we’ve ever encountered before.” The tech finished his explanation and tapped his chin in thought. “Actually sir, if my energy scans from the battle are correct, there’s no way this isn’t a hybrid.”  
  
The leader at this point was keying in a few passwords to contact HQ. They needed to know about this immediately. “Why is that?”  
  
“Because from the information I’m getting, this creature is making its own energy, something only hybrids can do.”  
  
“Then perhaps it is for the best I contact my superior officer. I’m sure he’d love to know where a brand new hybrid came from. Maybe if we are luckily, the thing will lead us back to the rest of the nest.” The leader turned away from the screen to call in spotting a ghost hybrid. _This ought to get me promoted out of this shit-hole piece of nowhere, and into the real action_ _in the Rockies._ He finished his call and concentrated back on the live feed in front of him, this little hybrid could prove to be useful.  
  
Danny was flying like a thing possessed. No matter what he did, he couldn’t lose the men below him. They were stuck to him like white on rice. _Or maybe white on those stupid suits they are wearing._ Danny dodged another couple of blasts and shot off in another direction. Everywhere he went, there was still more men. Either they had completely surrounded all of Amity Park, or they were able to predict his flight pattern, and well he _thought_ he was being random. Danny had thought these men were the Guys in White, but they were just way too competent. Not only that, but their weapons were like nothing he’d ever seen before. In between the invisibility scopes, which he’d seen Skulker use before once or twice, and the still-can-hit-you-while-intangible guns-which were new-, Danny was positive this wasn’t the Guys in White he knew. _Even if they have the same dorky outfits._ He thought while zooming off towards the westernmost edge of town. Flying directly into the setting sun had bought him some much needed time while they adjusted their scopes, and now he was a solid 500 yards away from the nearest gunner. Danny took a deep breath and flew at his top speed. Now that he didn’t have to keep changing directions, he didn’t have to fly as slowly, and he hoped his 200+ miles an hour flight would keep him out of harm’s way.  
  
The commander leading the field operatives watched as their target zoomed away.  
  
The current operations leader for all of Amity Park was making a mess of things. He had called into HQ to inform them of the situation, but he barely had any information to _give_ them. He had squawked and clucked like an ignorant chicken while their target flew literal circles around them.  
  
Now, with how fast it was flying, there was no way to catch it on the ground from their position. Worse, the creature had somehow flown out of the encircled area their men had created to capture it. If they wanted to keep tabs on this creature, they’d need air back-up. She frowned. That would require a call to the men upstairs. Still, this was the best lead they’d gotten in years, and she wasn’t about to just let it fly off. The field commander picked up her solid communicator; the wrist communicator was filled with too much cross traffic. “Command this is Agent J.”  
  
“This is communications officer Q, how may I direct your request?”  
  
“Hey Quinn, I’m in Amity and we’ve got a situation level five on our hands with a level 7.3 _confirmed_ hybrid. I’m requesting a patch through to HQ for Bravo air support with Alpha support on stand-by.”   
  
“Come on Agent J, you know we aren’t supposed to use real names over the non-secure lines.” Quinn scolded.  
  
“Whatever. When was the last time me and Head Commander had to be out in the field?”  
  
“I…-”  
  
“Exactly.” Agent J finished with a dismissive wave.  
  
“Is your bogey hostile?” Quinn asked ignoring the quip from several hundred miles away while routing the call through to D.C.  
  
“Negative, but that could be entirely contingent on its perception of our threat level.  It’s currently flying due west at approximately 105 m/s-”  
  
“Jesus Agent J, how are you all keeping up?” Quinn interrupted just as the call connected with Washington.  
  
“We aren’t Quinn, that’s why I’m calling for air back up.”  
  
“Good luck.” Quinn added just as the call switched over to HQ.  
  
“Talk to me.” A commanding voice on the other end of the line demanded.  
  
“Head command, this is Agent J; I’m leading the field operatives in Amity.”  
  
“Good commander, I was just about to request that incompetent Agent F stand down. You’re now temporary head of operations in Amity.”  
  
“Yeah, you’re just lucky I was breezing through town on a routine facility tour. Head Commander, authorize my air support so we can get this birthday cake lit.”  
  
The voice on the other end chuckled mirthlessly. “No problem Agent J, but I want it brought back alive at all costs.”  
  
“You got it sir, and trust me Commander; you know I’ve got this under control. One last thing, is this line secure?” Agent J had a tech pull up the flight path of her air support. They were coming in hot, two minutes max.  
  
“I’ve dismissed the listeners and recording systems, what’ve you got Jill?’ He’d known his second in command and favorite operative for years now, “secure” was her basically asking for privacy.  
  
“Commander, the tech’s say he’s a close match and I know that’s what your data screen says, but it’s bullshit. This isn’t Hostile 2nd Priority; I know the creature as well as you do. This is just too damn stupid for him.”  
  
“Oh I am well aware Jill, don’t worry about that. Just make sure you capture this new hybrid and await further instructions.”  
  
Jill nodded from the other side of the phone as the roar of the jets closed in overhead.  
  
“Oh and Jillian? Try to bring back this ghost with all of its limbs still attached. I need it coherent for questioning.”  
  
Jill smiled as the modified F-2’s rattled her jeep from the sky. “No promises.” She closed the line as the jets closed in on her bogey. _Let’s see you out run these, punk._  
  
Danny was closing in on the Amity-wide ghost shield with a vengeance. He didn’t know where he was going, but he knew it needed to be away from Amity. Just as the bright blue glow,- _how in the hell did I miss that?-_ turned purple by the setting sun, became more wall like than dome; Danny heard the rolling boom of two Mach speed fighter jets coming from behind him. He took his eyes off the shield for a moment to glance behind him.  
  
The jets were coming in faster than their target would get to the shield. They were sure of it. Most importantly, there was nowhere for it to run; even though hybrids could get past ghost shields, there was nothing but open air space for them to shoot at.     
  
Danny suddenly wished he had taken up Vlad on the teleporting lessons; he could really use them at the moment. A quick assessment of the situation later, Danny made a sharp dive heading straight down towards the earth. _If I phase through the ground, I’ll avoid the shield and the planes._  
  
A burst of static bleed through the cockpit of the rightmost plane, “Air Support one, what is the status of the pursuit?”  
  
“We maintain visual confirmation on the bogey; it is currently in a vertical dive towards the pavement. Authorize use of force.” The pilot of the fighter jet responded.  
  
“Use of force authorized, please keep in mind gentlemen, the Head Commander wants this ghost captured alive, and in, relatively, one piece. So mind your manners.”  
  
“Can do Operations Leader, deploying first round of missiles.” The rightmost pilot pressed a few buttons to ready the armaments and turn on the guidance system. “Alright Air Support two, let’s give this ghost something to actually fly away from.”  
  
“Roger that.” The leftmost plane replied, before firing a single missile from its belly.  
The rightmost plane followed suit, and soon there were two small projectiles head right for Danny’s position.  
  
He was closing in on the ground, just a few hundred yards to go. For a second, Danny thought this was too easy, and then he heard the whine and boom of the missiles behind him. He turned just in time to see the projectiles close within 100 yards of him, before shooting up and forward towards the ghost shield again.  
  
The missiles performed a stunningly sharp direction change, shutting off their main rocket exhaust and turning on a pair of smaller jets on their belly to slow and change the trajectory of their flight. After reorienting themselves, tail down, the rockets’ main jets switched on, propelling them after Danny.

“You have got to be kidding me!” Danny whined as the missiles refocused themselves on his person. He frowned and executed a series of spiraling dives to throw the missiles off to no avail. They stuck to him like glue, gaining on him fast. Danny flew back towards the center of Amity Park, and then changed directions sharply to the north. Nothing he did shook the missiles loose. “It’s like they’re magnetized to me or something.” Danny noted swinging around towards the western most edge of town, missiles still on his tail. He looked away, just for a second, and when he looked back, the fighter jets were hovering directly in front of him, a thousand yards out.  
  
“This is Flyer T for the United States Governmental Spectral Unit: Air Division. Ghost, you are flying in highly restricted air space and are hereby remanded into the custody of the GSU. Continue to resist capture, and we will be authorized to use lethal force.”  
  
“The GSU? Well that answers the question about the Guys in White,” Danny said while glancing back to gauge the remaining distance in between him and the missiles. There was a good chance those missiles were locked onto his signature somehow. “I’d like to apologize to the US government in advance for property damage.” Danny said while heading directly for the leftmost plane.  
  
“Property damage? What’s this brat talking about?” the leftmost jet pilot asked. The ghost may have been annoyingly hard to shot down, but it hadn’t thrown a single ecto-blast yet.  
  
The rightmost jet pilot gasped, “Tony! The creature’s flying right towards you!”  
  
The leftmost pilot let out a barrage of ecto-uranium charged bullets.  
  
Danny dived in between the sweeping lines of projectiles, never changing paths from his target. At the last second, he dove away from the cockpit of the fighter jet, and attempted to phase through the wing of the plane. Danny slammed into the wing of the plane, shearing it off, and throwing it and himself into a head spin. Danny regained control of his flight, in time to watch the jet crash into a brick building below. He shook his head to clear the ringing in his ears and started at the sight of the two missiles still shooting towards him. The ghost powered teen shot off towards the edge of the Amity Park shield again, missiles still trailing behind him. Danny had hoped to phase through the wing of the plane, and have at least one of the missiles blow up the wing, but it seemed he couldn’t phase through whatever material those jets were made out of.  
  
The remaining pilot hovered for a second over the crash site. “Flyer T, can you hear me?” A foreboding silence pervaded the space inside his cockpit before a static laced replied crackled through his head phones.  
  
“Yeah, I can hear you just fine. I’m floating down in my parachute, there’s no way I’m going to be able to get back on this mission. Do me a favor, and light that bastard up for me Flyer G.” The slowly descending pilot from the crashed jet requested. “Can do Flyer T. I’ll send your favorite his way.” The remaining pilot pulled up and away from the crash site. After reorienting himself towards the westernmost edge of the Amity shield, he shot off towards his bogey. He had a little payback to issue.  
  
Danny still had two missiles on his trail, but he finally had an idea on how to lose them. Since these things were locked onto his ecto-signature, if it disappeared they should get “confused”- _and explode or somethin_ g-. Not the best plan, but he knew these things were smart enough to head towards the last place they felt a signal. Plus, in order to get through the shield, he needed to transform back into his human form, but he needed to time this perfectly. Danny began building up a ball of ecto-energy in his hands, concentrating it to a bright lime green. The shield was within 200 yards of him now. _Let’s hope I have good timing._  
  
The last fighter jet zoomed in behind Danny, lining up for the perfect shot. With the glow in its arms, it looked like the creature was up to something, and Flyer G wasn’t going to take any chances. _Besides, there is no kill like overkill._ He thought with malicious glee, as he primed a new weapon to fire. His finger hovered over the button just long enough to say, “I hope you’ll forgive me Agent J, but this ghost is too dangerous to leave in one piece. Don’t worry though; I’ll leave you enough corpse chunks to have fun with.” A thin projectile fired from the weapons’ cache in the belly of the plane, zipping off towards an unawares Danny.  
  
The shield was 100 yards away now, and the concentrated ecto-blast was ready. _I just hope this works._ Danny gave as one final passing thought, before flipping to fly face up and firing the blast behind and above him. Immediately afterward, the ghost teen transformed, slipping in human form, past the now sun ruddy purple of the Amity Park ghost shield. He began arching down without the control flight his ghost powers allotted him, but he still didn’t transform. _Come on…_ Danny thought waiting for the resonating boom of the missiles detonating. He didn’t have to wait long.  
  
Soon, there was a satisfying boom washing through the air. The missiles had made contact with a combination of Danny’s feint ghost attack and each other, and were now floating down to the earth and crumpled up metallic pieces.  
  
Flyer G had just gotten the attack off, when the missiles that had been so faithfully following the ghost hybrid veered off their pursuit. Instead, they chased after a fired blob of the creature’s ghost energy and were heading right for him! He barely had time to eject, before the missile, the energy, and his several million dollar jet all went up in a massive smoky explosion. Flyer G jolted in his parachute connected seat, safely away from the crashing fiery wreckage that was his plane. He frowned, not knowing whether or not his last attack had gotten through the explosion, but knowing when he landed Agent J was going to give him an ear full. “Just my god damn luck, and I was up for a promotion too.” Flyer G shrugged helplessly in his seat.  
  
Danny couldn’t help the smug smile that tugged on his lips after the sound of the explosion. He quickly transformed to his alternate persona, regaining control over his previously wayward downward flight. He had leveled out just at rooftop level, when he felt a twinge in his lower back. Just as he reached around to feel out what hit him, a surge of painful electricity arced through his body. Before he could react, he found himself writhing in pain on the roof of some old brick building just outside the shield. Soon, though, the effect wore off, and he regained control of his facilities. “Uhg, what the hell hit me?” Danny asked as he reached around for the area he had felt the twinge in before. His sightless groping was rewarded with two inch diameter of something sticking out of his back. He winced before pulling the business end out of his body and brought it around to his front.  
  
It was white like the rest of the stuff the GSU used, but other than that, it was completely nondescript. The end of it came to a sharp point that was currently coated in dark green ectoplasm. There was nothing to suggest where the electricity had come from.  
  
Danny tossed the offending weapon away and off of the roof. He shrugged himself off of the ground and turned back towards the glowing ghost shield, its color fading back into blue with the final death throes of the sunset. The teen super hero massaged the sore spot on his back before reaching for the cold part of his being that represented his ghostly half…and reaching… _and reaching._ Danny started as he realized he could no longer feel his ghost half. The more he reached down, the more empty he got, almost as if the energy just slipped through his fingers faster the harder he tried to grasp down on it. _It’s almost like-_ “my powers got shorted out!” Danny voiced the rest of his thought in shock. _The dart thing, the electricity must have shorted out my powers like a ‘Plasmius Maximus’. Oh shit, I have no powers and I’m standing on a roof top in a town full of hostile ghost hunters. Not. Good._ Danny realized panicked. He raced for the door to the roof; he needed some place to hide.  
  
Agent J slammed her hands against the data console. They had just lost the signal of the hybrid right outside the Amity wide ghost shield. That incompetent fighter pilot not only lost visual sights on the creature, but shot it with a power shorting dart. Now, the ghost was without powers, but they couldn’t pick it up on their equipment either. It would take nearly 12 hours for the dart to wear off in a ghost the hybrid’s strength, and worse, being part human and with no clear visual representation of what its human form looked like, the records of its approach were suspiciously blurry every time they could get a good look at it, it could slip right out of the city unimpeded. They couldn’t very well set up a total blockade of the greater Amity area, and they had no probable cause to search every teenager in the area on suspicions of being half ghost. They had basically lost him, and all because of the _dumbass_ Flyer G. When she got a hold of his superior officer…  
  
“Operations Leader?” One of the techs peered into her temporary command center. They had all cleared out when it become obvious they had lost their quarry. The current Operations Leader had a reputation for being hot tempered, violent, and a consummate perfectionist. None of them wanted to be around her when the waste hit the proverbial air circulating device.  
  
“The only reason you should be interrupting me is to announce the capture of that hybrid. Unless the ghost invasion apocalypse is happening outside, his capture should have taken place by now.” Agent J hated having her concentration interrupted. There were still ways to track the creature, but she needed time to properly create the net.  
  
“Um, no Operations Leader, but I do have a call here from Head Command. They want a status update. I tried to wave them off, but they won’t take anyone but you, and they’re so…”  
  
“ Persistent? Yes I’m well aware. Patch them through to this room.” Agent J said as the tech scurried off to avoid the coming shitstorm.  
  
“Jill, what the hell was that? I’m getting the data from the last few minutes, and it’s one extended clusterfuck.”  
  
“Head Commander, did they send a bunch of rookies out of the closest air field? Those pilots got circles flown around them by some new comer of a ghost.”  
  
“Jill, I expected you to keep this situation under control, just what am I supposed to report to the rest of Command? To _my_ superiors in Washington wondering why they are ‘wasting money’ on our Department? There hasn’t been a sighting of ghosts, especially not a hybrid, in years, and my organization bungles it up. Shit. Goddamn it Jill, you said you had this under control.”  
  
“I did Head Commander, and I still do. My damn air support was a couple of hot shots who wanted to try out new tech without clearance. Bring it up with the people at Ft. Grayson. Tell them to train their boys better. Listen, I have a plan to get this ghost captured-”  
  
“Don’t worry about it. I know the creature’s powerless right now, but that’s not such a bad thing. It can’t cause any problems, but right now it’s vulnerable, and _feeling_ it. It’s going to be lying low anyway, so it won’t leave the area. You don’t have to worry about it getting far, chances are it can’t go anywhere far without using its powers to fly. Most importantly, this gives us an opportunity.”  
  
“Just what are you thinking of Commander?” Jill leaned closer to the speaker of the two way video.  
  
“We can pull back for now. I’m sure the creature will think we just lost track of it without its powers to follow. Obviously, as soon as its powers return we’ll be able to pick up its signature again, so that’s no problem. However, with no one visibly following it, it will relax into complacency, allowing us to follow it back to its origins without further confrontation.”  
  
“You are suggesting we give up the chase for the next few hours to gain stealth later?” Jill leaned back and crossed her arms. It was a good plan, but it still could backfire on them.  
  
“Precisely. We’ll use the orbital satellites to track his ecto-signature’s movements, and move in when he stops for any significant period of time. Say anything over 24 hours.” The Head Commander gathered up the pile of paper in front of him. “I have to go give a brief to the Joint Chiefs of Staff about this little incident. Tell Agent F he has command over Amity Park again, and come back to HQ. I could use your support over the next 48 hours.” The Head Commander finished his instructions while placing the last of his data into his brief case.  
  
“Alright. I’ll hand over command here and be on the next plane back to Washington. Though Head Commander, before the meeting when I return, I’d like to discuss my observations with you personally.”  
  
“Agreed. I’ll see you in a few hours Jill. Make sure the situation is under control, press release, clean-up, hush-up, and the whole nine yards as needed. We don’t need the hybrid sighting getting into any media outlets. You have my explicit authorization for any actions you deem necessary to take.”  
  
“Glad to have your trust so unambiguously.” Jill responded lightly.  
  
“Just make sure you don’t make me look like an idiot Jill, and you’ll keep getting it. Head Command out.”  
  
Jill nodded her farewell and snapped a regulation salute into the visual two-way. She grimaced nearly as soon as the screen faded. She hated dealing with civilians and clean-up, but orders were orders. She strode purposefully out of the temporary field command center, crossing the space between it and the reforming ranks of field operatives in Amity Park. Agent J looked over the disgruntled expanse of officers with a similar feeling of frustration. They hated as much as she did letting a quarry escape. “Gentlemen, I’ve just finished talking with Head Command, and under direct orders we are to disengage from the target from here on out. The operations and monitoring for this creature will be handled at HQ. We are to immediately start on clean up and damage minimizing.”  
  
The standing group of officers broke out into a combination of murmurs and frowns. They had never let such a dangerous ghost go free before, shorted out powers or not. “Operations Commander-”  
  
“That’s an order men, no room for questioning here. Also, I hereby remand control of Amity Park back to Agent F. I need to control the civilian side of this equation, so if you need me, look for the paparazzi buzzards.” Agent J stepped from in front of the gathered men just as Agent F stepped onto the platform to reassess his authority. She needed to talk to the press, but there was one thing she _had_ to do first. She walked out of the hastily erected tent that signified their meeting place and into the last rays of the setting sun. Jillian looked towards the medical tent where the ejected pilots were getting looked over for injuries, however unlikely their occurrence would be. She stepped inside the tent with a look of thunder fixed on her face. “Just what the hell did you two hot-dogging morons think you were doing up there?” If she had to be stuck with the media all night, she was at least going to get a good ranty bitch out done on those incompetent pilots.

 

* * *

  
  
Danny shivered under the darkened night sky. He had a fairly good idea where he was, having visited this part of the greater Amity Park area before on a field trip a few months back. He had quickly jogged down the building he landed on to the street below, and with a few minutes of brisk running, put some distance between his crash site and his current position. Still, he didn’t want to be on the street with all those Guys in White solider upgrades looking for him. So Danny ducked into another building, this one significantly more run-down than the one he had landed on. He needed to stay out of sight, at least until he figured out what was going on. A speeding summary of the last hour rushed through his mind unbidden.  
  
The dark interior was covered in dust and damp from the surprising heat. It smelled like mold, mildew, and old unmoved things, but that was a good sign. It meant no one frequented here, and that’s exactly what Danny needed.  
  
The exhausted teen wandered out of the moonlit ground floor and down into the dank basement. He slid his right hand along the wet condensation soaked walls as he passed down the staircase. The stairs opened up into a large dark box filled space. Danny quickly leaned against one of the far walls, hidden behind a stack of cardboard boxes. Now that the adrenaline was leaving him, and without his ghost powers, he was utterly drained. Hoping to catch some shut eye, Danny leaned back into his little box and concrete block made cubby-hole, but the day’s events kept replaying in his mind’s eye. Nothing was right, and for the first time in a week, Danny couldn’t blame it on still being stuck in the past. Just as he was about to drift off to sleep, a final thought flitted across his consciousness. _What in the world have I done?_

**…then he might not have changed the past.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...and the Future is Wild. ;)


	10. If the Nightmare Is Only Beginning...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A diner, travels, and the enemy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyway, sorry for this being so long between updates. Life got a little...yeah. But, here's the next chapter.

Danny awoke with a start, sore and terrified from what had to be the worse dream of his life. Time-travel, jet fighter planes, a freakily competent Guys in White, it was all too unreal. He wrapped his arms around his middle; cold, and shivering not just from the imagined chill. The errant time traveler stood up from his painful position on the floor, rubbing at the twinging pain in his lower back while doing so. Danny rubbed the sleep from his eyes and stumbled from in between the stacked boxes of his make-shift hiding place. After a few extra seconds to bring the minimum necessary higher brain functions online, he walked forward towards where his bedroom door should be… _Jazz is going to get a kick out of this one._ The sleep-addled teen thought while still wandering, eyes closed, for his bedroom door. He’d made a habit of telling his sister the more disturbing dreams, at her insistence. He stumbled over something lying haphazardly on his “bedroom” floor before grumpily kicking it out of the way and opening his eyes fully to avoid a repeat.

For the second time in what was only a week, Danny awoke somewhere he not only didn’t expect, but didn’t immediately recognize. A dark windowless _basement_ greeted his sight. The dim lightening did nothing to disguise the condensation soaked walls or the drooping stacks of cardboard boxes all around him. It especially didn’t stop the jolt of realization currently crackling through his system like a lightning bolt. _Oh. God! It wasn’t a dream!_ A cold terror snaked up his spine as the blunt starkness of reality splashed through him like a bucket of ice water over his head. Danny slid his hands through his hair, willing himself to calm down and think the situation through. A few seconds of forced slow breathing later, the teenaged superhero was slumped in the center of the room, head resting precariously in his hands. Now more than fully awake, he set his mind on auto pilot as the memories came flooding back.  
  
A fight with Plasmius, a hasty decision, a family that was his but didn’t know it yet, crazy battles with the last involving a freaking pair of fighter jets; all of it crashed back into the fore of his mind. _Ok great! I’m back in the future, without going 88 miles per hour,_ he thought with a roll of his eyes, _but not one that I recognize. First thing I know for sure, my parents do **not** live in Amity Park. There’s just no way with it being ghost hunter central that I’d be safe, especially with halfa sensing equipment._ Danny closed his eyes as a shudder coursed its way across his skin. It wasn’t as if his parent’s ghost sensing equipment never picked him up, it just never picked him out as half ghost. _And how in the world do they know about halfas anyway?_ Danny shook his head, setting aside that mystery to continue his internal monologue.  
  
_If they don’t live here, there is a chance they still live close by though, because this is the ghost capital of the world. As long as they could be sure I was safe, and being outside the dome-they built a freaking dome?- would do it. Secondly,_ Danny started before getting up to pace the room. He was restless. _There’s a good chance Sam and Tucker would know where I live. If my parents moved, it must have been after I got my powers. It also completely explains why the Guys in White rejects know about half ghosts. I mean, I’m sure my parents were able to get actual funding from Vlad or something and so were actually connected to the rest of the ghost hunting community. So after I got powers, the world knew about halfas. Ok, lastly,_ Danny stopped pacing and crossed his arms in thought, _if Sam and Tucker don’t know where I live, then I’m sure…Vlad does. In which case, if I find **him** in Wisconsin or wherever, I’ll find the rest of my family._ Danny finished off his logical progression with a nod of his head. The first objective was to connect with his friends, and if that didn’t pay off, he could make a flight out to Vlad after his parents’ whereabouts. And considering he still had he’s friends’ phone numbers, it didn’t even require him to sneak back into Amity to find them.  
  
He had turned off his cell phone a little after he had arrived in the past. There was really no use for it, he couldn’t even get a signal, and everyone he’d want to call was either in the future, or didn’t know him yet. Danny reached in his pocket and flipped open his phone. A few seconds of startup music later, and he was browsing through his contacts list. He knew both Sam’s and Tucker’s phone numbers, cell and house, by heart. On the other hand, he was nervous as all get out, and the repetitive motion on the keypad was helping calm him down. _Should I call Sam or Tucker first?_ Danny hesitated over the section of his phone with the speed dials, glancing quickly in between their names. His finger hovered over the number a second longer before he made his decision. Sam first. The curling fingers of nerves twisted inside his guts as he waited for Sam to pick up.  
  
_I’m sorry. The number you have requested cannot be completed as dialed. Please hang up and try again._ A voice droned from the other side of the line. The long beep of the dial tone rang out as the automated system hung up from the other end.  
  
Danny gripped the phone tighter and looked back at his contacts list again. He was sure he had dialed it correctly; he didn’t even have to check it against his list because he knew it by rote memory. He felt a cold sweat break out on his skin, and slick up his palms as he re-dialed the number.  
  
_I’m sorry. The number-_  
  
Danny hung up and tried again.  
  
_I’m sorry.-_  
  
_No. No, no no. This can’t be happening. This is Sam’s cell phone number. It has to be._ Danny tightened his grip on the cell phone to stop the fine tremble coursing through his limbs. He took another deep breath, and decided to try Tucker’s number instead. To his immense relief the cell phone actually connected and he could hear ringing on the other side. It rung once, twice, and thrice before he heard someone pick up on the other side.  
  
_Hey this is Theo. I obviously can’t come to the phone right now, too busy rocking out, so sing your song at the beep, and I’ll maybe get back to you._ A long beep issued from the phone as the voicemail clicked over to record mode.  
  
Danny nearly dropped the phone in shock. The voice on the other end wasn’t Tucker’s. At the very least he had gotten the voice mail, so he didn’t have to talk to whoever was on the other side of the phone. Danny resisted the compulsion to check the phone for the number again. It obviously wasn’t his friend’s so checking once more wasn’t going to help. The time traveling hero gathered the frayed edges of his nearly destroyed nerves and started thinking things through again. _Alright, so their numbers aren’t exactly the same. Phone numbers are a simple thing, they can change really quickly. No reason to jump to conclusions. I’ll just call their home numbers, and if **those** aren’t the same, I’ll look up the numbers in a phone book or something. No big deal, don’t freak out over nothing._ Danny re-steeled his nerves and looked up Sam and Tucker’s house numbers. He really didn’t have to, but once again, the repetitive clicking soothed his nerves. The decision about who to call first was a simple one. Sam’s parents hated him, so calling Tucker’s house was the obvious choice.  
  
He didn’t even bother looking at the phone screen this time, opting to instead dial it from rote memory. The other end rung twice before being picked up.  
  
A female voice from the other side announced the Foley residence and asked who was speaking.  
  
“Hey Mrs. Foley. This is Danny…is Tucker home?” Danny smiled into his side of the phone, excited to finally hear the voice of someone he knew. Angela Foley was a nice enough lady, and just knowing she was still local to Amity made him feel a lot more certain about his deductions from earlier.  
  
The other side of the line went quiet before someone said, “Who is this?” The voice on the other side of was angry, accusatory.  
  
Danny jumped on the other end of the phone. “It’s Danny, Danny Fenton. I…listen I accidentally deleted my contact’s list, and I can’t seem to remember Tucker’s number. Do you think-”  
  
“Well Mr. Fenton,” The voice on the other end sneered, “perhaps you could ask your father what Tucker’s number is. He should even know _where_ he is. And tell that bastard that if anyone from your family calls again, I’ll have my lawyer on his ass faster than he can scream ‘ghost’.” Angela hung up the phone, slamming it down into the receiver. A few years ago, she might have just broken into tears, but now she was too strong for that. Maybe if the Fentons had any sense, they’d never call again.  
  
Danny stared into the phone, a beeping dial tone emanating from the receiver. “What the hell was that about?” He was beginning to get a bad feeling about this, but apparently he and Tucker weren’t friends anymore. _Did the entire half ghost thing cause that much of a ripple?_ Danny thought as he reluctantly dialed up Sam’s house number. Mrs. Mason didn’t like him at all, and he could only imagine that if being half ghost put Tucker’s parents that far out, Sam’s probably had a restraining order against him. Still, he had to try. Maybe just contacting the house would get him somewhere. Sam could call him back, going against her parent’s wishes as usual, and maybe he could figure out where he lived. Anything was something at this point.  
  
The phone rang one time further at Sam’s house than Tucker’s, before Mrs. Mason picked up the line. “This is the Mason residence, Pamela Mason speaking.” She was in a good mood today. She and her husband had gotten a new measure through on the school board, creating a nice peppy dress code for Amity’s future at the local high school. To top it all off, they were going to a nice restaurant to celebrate.  
  
Danny took a deep breath before responding. _At least she sounds like she’s in a good mood._ “Hey Mrs. Manson, it’s Danny. I was wondering if Sam was home.” He held his breath while waiting for the response. If he didn’t, he was sure he would be panting from anxiety into the receiver.  
  
Pamela felt a jolt of heartache shoot through her, one she thought had been buried for years. “You…you have some nerve calling here young man. I don’t know who you are, but if you ever contact this house for some sick prank call like this again, I’ll have your parents ground you till you’re thirty-five! I’m the head of the PTA so don’t think I don’t know your mother!”  
  
“Prank call? No listen, I’m sorry Mrs. Manson, this is Danny _Fenton,_ Sam’s best friend, and I know you don’t like me, but please don’t hang up, I just-”  
  
“You sick _monster_! You stay away from my family, and don’t you EVER call this house again.”  
Once again a dial tone was the only thing that greeted Danny’s surprised and hurt stare. Admittedly, Pamela Manson had _never_ liked him before, but that was way over the line. _A sick monster? Wow._ He shook his head and tucked the phone back into his pocket. He wanted to call his sister’s number, but with how bad it had just gone with his friends, Danny wasn’t sure he could risk it. He knew his own sister would never turn him away, but there was a chance it was a different number than the one in his phone, and he would either get the same automated prompt that he had gotten from dialing Sam’s number, or he would get another person entirely, and he wasn’t up to more rejection at the moment.  
  
Worse, it wasn’t like his friends’ parents would be forthcoming about his current residence, if they knew it at all. He’d never seen them, their respective mothers, so angry at him. Angry and hurt. It was like he had dredged up some bad memory or something. Still, if they the half ghost thing had gone over as bad as he thought, their reactions made sense. _Not like Mrs. Mason needed an excuse, but being half ‘not human’ would be a good one from her conservative perspective. I don’t know what to say about Mrs. Foley though._ Danny shrugged and swiveled his head left and right for the exit. He had come in here some way, a stairway if he remembered correctly, so the exit should be…- _Ah_ \- He thought catching the sparse light from the first floor shining down an opening. He silently worked his way through the boxes and across to the room and towards the softly falling light. Danny stole up the stairs and onto the ground floor of the building he’d slept in the night before. He hadn’t paid much attention to the layout when he arrived, only looking for somewhere to hid, so he took the opportunity now.  
  
It was nowhere near as stuffy and dank on the ground floor as the basement, the cross wind blowing through the gaps in the boarded up windows moving the late spring air. Still, it was dusty and relatively dark on the ground floor, and Danny didn’t want to stay here longer than necessary. It was likely the GSU was still looking for him, and since he’d slept here overnight, he needed to move on soon.  
  
Danny looked down at his cell, checking the time. It was nearly noon, and since he had passed out sometime around sunset the day before, sunset coming around 6pm at this time of year in Amity Park, that meant he’d been out nearly 18 hours. On the plus side, he was feeling fully refreshed, and he’d been laying low long enough for the initial search to blow over. On the negative, he could feel his stomach trying to burrow a hole through his abdomen at the moment, and there was nothing to eat. He gripped at the empty feeling in his gut, before something else came back to mind. His powers had been shorted out last night, and he didn’t know whether or not he was able to use them again. _Well I better give it a try before I venture outside._ Danny decided. He reached inside for the cool feeling of his ghost powers at the pool of energy that usually existed in his chest. A few tentative brushes past the area left him with a wide smirk. His powers were back! Now more calmed than before, Danny started towards the door to the building, confident he’d be able to defend himself. He held his hand over his eyes like a visor as the bright midday sun assaulted them.  
  
Off in the distance was the Amity Park city wide ghost shield, its bright blue glow visible even in the height of the day. It easily covered the entire small city and then some, bleeding into some of the surrounding boroughs and districts.  
  
The ghost powered teen frowned at the bright unnatural glow off into the distance. Everything he knew was inside that bubble. _Ok. First order of business, I need a disguise._ _There is a good chance the Guys in White rejects saw what I looked like when I just walked up to their hid out. So I need a change of clothes. How much money do I have on me?_ Danny pondered as he moved away from the shelter of the abandoned building. He felt through his pockets for his wallet and pulled it out as he waited on the corner for the light to change. To his dismay, he only had 20 bucks on him. Enough for a few cheap fast food meals, but not enough for anything else, including a hotel or clothes. _Great. So I’m broke too._ Danny groused as he finished crossing the street and walked towards the coffee shop on the other side of it. He needed to either make some cash, or get some fast five finger discounts. The thought of stealing sat really badly with his system, a burning coal of guilt already settling into his stomach at the thought. But with no money to buy new clothes, no way to get money quickly and legally, and a real need to get out of town as fast as possible, it was looking like his only option. Danny sighed and leaned against a red brick wall, warm from the noon day sun, as he thought over his options again. If he could just figure out where his parents were, it would be easy. He’d thought about finding somewhere with internet and just looking them up. That would solve the problem easily, but there was a great chance any place like that would be crawling with the GSU. Public spaces like libraries, internet cafes, and most eateries were probably being canvassed as he thought about it. _And speaking of, I need to stop standing here._ Danny pushed away from the wall he was resting on and walked in a random direction. Staying still wasn’t the best decision at the moment.  
  
Since he couldn’t get access to the internet, whether he wanted to or not, that left him with trying more personable resources. Out of those, the only one left was…Vlad. He really didn’t want to end up at his doorstep asking for help again, but it seemed life hated him at the moment. _It wasn’t as if I spent the last week in Vlad’s debt or anything._ Danny rolled his eyes at the thought and stop against another wall. He needed to get his bearings. It was about noon now, so he couldn’t even tell which way was west or east, and he couldn’t tell from memory where he was exactly, he never ventured this far out of Amity on the regular. Whenever he could figure out which way was west, he’d be going that way. It was quite a flight to Vlad’s Wisconsin home from Amity, at least distance wise, but he’d be able to make it in about two hours if he flew fast. It was times like this Danny was happy he could fly. Even taking a car, if he could drive, would be at least a 6 hour drive. _But first, lunch._ Danny began walking towards the diner he’d seen just up the street. While he’d personally prefer Nasty Burger, it was inside the dome, which made it off limits to him. At least if he didn’t want to draw attention to himself. He sauntered up to the front of the diner, taking in the fading letters in gold announcing it as “Donnas’ Place”, before pushing the door open with a tingle of bells.  
  
A chocolate haired waitress walked over to the podium at the sound of the entrance bells. It should have been the middle of the lunch rush hour, but most everyone was huddled up inside after the ghost attack the night before. They weren’t common anymore, even in the famous Amity Park area, so it spooked people up a lot. On the other side of the podium was a dark haired young man. She quirked her lips at the boldness of youth these days. The only people who ever came out so soon after an attack were those adults who had to go to work, or the teens who thought they were invincible. Personally, she had thought her boss would have shut up house for the day, but he was almost as money hungry as he was daring. _Nothing less than the ghost apocalypse is going to make this store close._ Her boss had claimed. And so if the diner was open, she was working, and looking at stupid kids who didn’t know enough to be scared. “Hey, welcome to Donnas’ Diner, table for one right?”  
  
Danny swept his eyes over the interior of the building. It was conspicuously empty. That surprised him a lot more than he thought it would. It was the middle of the day, so there should be people, and for the life of him he couldn’t figure out why it was empty. “Uh yeah…actually, I think I’ll just take a seat at the bar if you don’t mind. That way I don’t take up a whole table on my own.”  
  
The waitress scoffed and tossed a section of her long chocolate hair over one shoulder. “Don’t worry about that kid; no one’s coming in here today.” She picked up a menu and walked with him towards the bar.  
  
Danny felt his eyebrows move towards his hairline. “Why? It’s the middle of the day. Don’t most places have a lunch rush or something?”  
  
The waitress sneered. “Yeah usually, but were you living in a hole last night? There was a ghost attack, and you know, everyone’s scared stiff. If adults don’t have to be at their jobs to keep it, they’ll all huddle up in their houses, as if that’s going to protect them from something that can go through walls.” She shuddered and set the menu in front of the dark haired young man. “My name’s Debbie by the way,” she said while motioning to the bright white name tag pinned to her bosom. It had a heart over the ‘I’ the same way she’d done it since high school.  
  
“Oh, well I’m Danny, and well I’m not really from around here.” _It’s not really a lie; I don’t live around here anymore, my parents moved or something._ Danny rationalized as Debbie moved away to the kitchen. He heard her snap something at the cook to actually start up the stove to make something because they had a customer, before moving back towards him.  
  
“Oh yeah? What’s a kid like you doing in Amity area if you aren’t from around here?” Debbie leaned against the counter to take pressure off of her legs. Standing up the whole shift was the bad part of waitressing, but she loved meeting the people that just blew through town.  
  
“Well I’m on vacation with my family.” Danny shoved down the flutters of shock at how easy lying was getting, even on the spot.  
  
A short laugh escaped Debbie’s lips and she shifted her weight onto her left leg to rest her head in the hand on the same side. “And your family just let you wander off after last night’s attack?” She asked incredulous. The nerve of parents! It seemed like some of them didn’t care if their offspring lived or not.  
  
Danny pouted under the slight to his family’s honor as he paged through the menu. Plenty of cheap good looking food met his gaze. “Hey I’m not a little kid. I can watch myself. Plus they wanted to go somewhere else for lunch. Besides, we only got here this morning, so we missed all the excitement last night. Good thing too, or I would have never gotten any peace and quiet for myself.” Danny sent an annoyed tinged glance at his waitress’ mirth filled face.  
  
_Oh he **is** cute._ “Uh huh, and I’m sure you could fight off any ghost that came your way to hot stuff. Peace and quiet eh? Lots of siblings to drive you nuts on the road trip up here?” Debbie couldn’t place it, but she’d seen his baby face and big emotive eyes somewhere before.  
  
“No only one, but my parents spent the whole time fighting over what was the fastest way to get here, if we were lost, that they needed to stop for directions, that my mom was driving too fast, or my dad was driving too reckless. By the end of it my sister was even in it, telling them staying in such a closed area was bringing out latent hostile and invoking animal territorial instincts.” Danny chuckled as the last road trip the family took flitted across his mind. “She’s practically an amateur psychologist.”  
  
Debbie tapped her lip in thought as Danny’s ramblings washed over her. _I know I’ve seen his face somewhere…_ She shrugged as a lull in conversation required her to respond back, she’d figure it out eventually, she never forgot a face. “Is she? Does she want to diagnose criminals and get inside their nutty heads, or listen to people complain about how much their mediocre life is not like the awesome movie rock star life they were promised by society?”  
  
Danny laughed as he came to a decision about his food. “I think she wants to listen to people complain. She wants to help people be better adjusted, or so she says. Er well, that’s why she keeps trying to practice on me. Oh can I get a coke, and a Donna’s special with extra fries? ” Danny closed the menu and handed it back to the waitress.  
  
“No problem hun. Earl! Wake up back there, don’t say you weren’t sleeping, I can hear you snoring from here. We have a DS with extra hash coming up, and don’t burn it this time, I like this kid.” Debbie stepped over to the fountain drink station and started to pour her new vacationing teen customer a drink. She heard Earl mumble something back about being worked to the bone, and snickered.  
  
Earl was a good worker and the best short order cook in town, but he worked two other jobs. Whenever he was awake, he could make anything greasy under the sun, but most of the time he was sleeping if there weren’t orders coming in, and there weren’t any today.  
  
The brunette walked back over to the bar, an extra tall coke in hand. She set it in front of the only customer of the day, and slid next to him on the bar, sick of standing.  
  
“Oh no, I only ordered a medium.”  
  
Debbie waved off his concerned with an achy dish pan wrinkled hand. “Don’t worry about it kid, we aren’t going to go bust giving you a tall coke with refills today. We’ll be lucky if this place gets back to normal by Friday.”  
  
Danny took a long swing from his drink and looked back over at the sitting waitress. “Why’s that?”

She snorted and swiveled to lean against the counter for support while still looking at Danny. “Has it really been that long? I guess most _people_ , let alone kids your age, don’t remember how dangerous ghosts can be.” The chocolate haired woman shook her head and reached for the remote at the edge of the bar. The news and scenes from last night could explain it better than she ever could. “Listen kiddo, I know you aren’t from around here, but ghosts are kind a big deal. Every time the U.S. government thinks they are extinct or some other nonsense, and that the GSU isn’t needed, one or two strong ones they haven’t managed to catch shows up and wreak havoc, like last night.” Debbie paused to flip on the news station. The ring of the bell in the back told the waitress Earl was done with the food, so she moved back around to the other side of the bar.  
  
Danny took in this new information with a growing sense of apprehension. _Ghost attacks happen so infrequently, that people are scared by them, because all the ghosts have been captured?_ He was stopped short in his musings as a steaming plate full of fries and a hulk of a burger was set down in front of him. “Woah! That’s a lot more than I thought I’d get.”  
  
“Aw, too much food for you kiddo?” Debbie teased while taking her seat back by Danny at the bar.  
  
“What? No way!” the hungry teen replied while stuffing a huge handful of fries into his mouth. “I just didn’t think five bucks would buy this much food.” He gulped down another mouthful of fries, before heading into burger territory.  
  
The brunette laughed at her customer’s food disappearing powers. “Hey take it easy kid, it’s not going anywhere. Hey look!” She turned back towards the back of the diner where the TV was set up and pointed. “Looks like the news has looped back around to last night’s ghost attack. Took it long enough, maybe if we’re lucky they’ll play the press release from the GSU leader of Amity Park again.” Agent Frank was pretty cute in her middle-aged opinion, and she had a right to a little eye candy every now and then.  
  
Danny paused, burger half way to his lips, and twisted around to look at the TV screen. Sure enough there was an overly peppy sunshine colored hair reporter talking about last night’s “ghost attack.” He had to stop himself from rolling his eyes at the phrase; he was the one who got attacked, not the other way around.  
  
Debbie grabbed her only customer’s half empty coke before snatching up the remote to turn up the volume. They usually kept it low, but with no one else around, it wouldn’t be too bad to turn it up.  
  
_That’s right Lance, last night was a historic event._  
  
The voices from the television blared out as she leaned against the counter from the opposite side of her customer again.  
  
_This marks the first time in four years that a ghost attack has taken place in Amity Park. Our protectors the GSU, have issued a warning to stay indoors unless absolutely necessary to go out._ The camera zoomed out from the bright green eyed bottle blond face of the news anchor. _As the ghost has yet to be found and apprehended, it is still at large and very much dangerous._  
  
_You beat ya’ Tammy. Last night’s ghost attack cost the city thousands of dollars, with initial damage estimates in the hundreds of thousands. Luckily, the city will not be charged for the loss of the two fighter jets that were in pursuit of this new ghostly threat, lowering the bill significantly. Several of our viewers have called in to express concern and alarm over the apparent strength of the ghost that attacked last night. They want to know what our defenders and saviors the GSU are doing about it._  
  
_Of course they do Lance. Naturally, many of our Amity area viewers missed the press release from last night and early this morning due to the chaos of the last 24 hours, so our station will be periodically rebroadcasting the GSU report on the top of every hour for the rest of the broadcasting day. The next broadcast is due in another 30 seconds or so, so stay tuned._ The picture flickered over to commercial, with a promise that the press release would be the first thing back on air afterward.  
  
Danny finished off the last of his fries absentmindedly staring at the TV screen before grabbing up the newly refilled coke. “Wow, that fight must have been worse than I thought.”  
  
“Yeah it was kid, a whole apartment building got destroyed when the first plane crashed, and there are pieces of the second one all over the place. You know what’s weird?” Debbie leaned over closer to her customer conspiratorially.  
  
Danny shook his head and leaned over further himself, to play into the faux need for secrecy.  
  
“I saw the press release last night, and I know they are saying it wasn’t him, but I think it was.” Debbie leaned back and flicked her eyes over to the TV screen, checking to see if the commercial was over.  
  
“He who?” Danny asked, more confused than before she answered the question.  
  
“You know the teenaged ghost hybrid. They have pictures of the ghost from last night, and he looks a little different, you know different hair color and all, but the face is really similar, and the ghost looked really human. Only hybrids look that human.”  
  
Danny shifted nervously in his seat as the television switched back to the news station from commercial. “Oh? Well I don’t know, maybe we should trust the professionals?”  
  
The tired waitress shifted back to Danny’s side of the counter and sat back down next to him. “Yeah well, the government doesn’t always tell the truth, and even if it isn’t him, it has to be another hybrid, and there’s no press release on Earth that will convince me otherwise.” She picked up the remote and flicked the volume a notch higher as the press report from last night replayed.  
  
_Agent F-_  
  
_Agent F!-_  
  
_Agent-_  
  
A group of flurried hands shot up in front of the news podium at City Hall. Agent F calmly held a hand out to quiet the crowd before speaking. _Gentlemen, please calm down. Save all of your questions until after the press release is finished, and I will answer as many as I can then._ The group of reporters settled down as the government agent settled into his place in front of them. _Gentlemen, I am here to confirm reports of a ghost attack on Amity Park earlier this evening. At 6:05pm, approximately three hours previous, a ghost set off the sensors outside of the GSU headquarters. Our initial team attempted to quarantine the entity, but underestimated the creatures flying speed leading to a breach of perimeter. In order to contain the entity the GSU Air Division was called in. These were the two fighter jets inhabitants saw flying over the area in the last few hours. The ghost was more powerful than initial estimates and was able to evade and destroy both aircraft before escaping._  
  
_Neither pilot was injured, nor were there injuries to the GSU’s ground team. There have been scattered reports of minor civilian injuries, but as far as we know, the Amity area sustained no causalities from the encounter with the ghost a few hours ago. The people of Amity Park and its attendant areas are official advised to remain indoors as much as possible and to avoid travel. We are declaring a level orange emergency, and as such, allowing the full cancellation of business hours, at the owners’ discretion, and telling the working employees of the Amity area to call in due to ghost terrorism. It is of course our official recommendation that this not reflect badly on the employees that do take the next day for their own protection. This ends the official press release from the GSU, are there any questions?_ Agent F stepped away from the microphone and waited for the hands to shoot up.  
  
_Agent F-_  
  
_Agent!-_  
  
_Amity GSU leader!_ An especially enthusiastic reporter dove forward with his microphone in hand at the government agent.  
  
Agent F nodded and leaned towards the mic. _Yes?_  
  
_Agent F, can you give the people of Amity Park an explanation how the ghost got inside the shield and so close to your facility?_  
  
_I’m not at liberty to speculate, we are pursuing all avenues into the cause of the breach.-_  
  
_So you think the Amity Park ghost shield was breached somehow?_  
  
_Allow me to rephrase that, Gentlemen the Amity Park shield **is** ghost proof. Make no mistake about it, the shield is and was active at the time of the attack.-_  
  
_Then how do you explain the ghost just appearing inside Amity Park?_ The same reporter as before shoved the microphone back in Agent F’s direction.  
  
_As I said before I am not at liberty to speculate, however there are several mechanisms that could be at work here. A-_  
  
_Then could you confirm or deny the reports of the ghost being a ghost hybrid of some kind?_ The same ardent reporter as the last time drew attention back his way. The main camera for the Channel Nine station swung around to capture both the reporter and Agent F in a single wide angle shot.  
  
Agent F slid off his government issue sunglasses and hung them off of his pocket. Taking them off made him seem more human, the test polls had said, and he needed the extra element to make this next line convincing. He smiled down into the flashing cameras and said, _Gentlemen, I’m not at liberty to speak freely about many things. My line of work requires much secrecy for the good of Amity and the nation as a whole; often times national security is at stake when I decline your questions. However, this is something I can directly respond to. After looking over the data myself, I can deny the reports of there being a hybrid in the city. All known hybrids are closely monitored and this ghost does not match up to **any** of the GSU records for hybrids. I know it seems strange how this ghost just appeared inside the shield, and we promise we are looking into it, but now is not the time to jump to hurried, messy, and dangerous conclusions about the ghost attack a few hours ago. The ghost was not a hybrid, of this we are certain._  
  
Danny let out a breath he wasn’t sure he had been holding and leaned back against the bar.  
  
“Yeah thinking it was one of those ghost human mixed freaks worried me too, but I don’t buy their official line.” Debbie poked the diner’s only customer in the shoulder as the press release continued.  
  
_Now I know many of our citizens reported seeing the ghost in our skies the last few hours and have pointed out how humanoid and even disturbingly life-like the creature appeared. There’s nothing to worry about. I know the creature looked human, even young, I saw it with my own eyes, but it is only a trick ghosts can use to hide themselves. Some are experts are changing their form and shape, like the female ghost Spectra who was caught several years back, or the morphing ghost who was caught just recently. Some ghosts are intelligent enough to exert control over their physical appearance to manipulate humans, so don’t take a ghost’s initial look as proof._ Agent F finished his explanation and was about to flip his glasses back on when the nosy insistent reporter who started the Q &A session piped back up.  
  
_The maybe you can explain this?_ The picture shifted as the station played an amateur video tape from last night. In it, the mysterious ghost from last night’s attack was seen flying for the Amity Park shield, bright green ball of ectoplasm in hand. Behind him are two ecto-energy seeking missiles, getting closer by the second. All of a sudden, the ball of energy is fired and there’s a bright flash of white light. The screen goes fuzzy for a few seconds and then focuses in again on the ghost on the other side of the shield.  
  
The reporter smirked triumphantly at the Amity Park GSU operations leader, waiting for his response. The video had been visible to those at the press conference by way of a monitor facing towards the crowd at the Hall.  
  
Agent F barely had time to cover the surprised look on his face before the camera zoomed back onto his face. He pursed his lips into a hard line before sliding his sunglasses safely into place. A cold confident smile erased the firm line previously occupying his face, before he leaned back towards the microphones. _Gentlemen are you familiar with the ghost power of teleportation?_  
  
The standing group of reporters quieted as the question filtered through the room.  
  
Agent F chuckled before continuing, _I didn’t think so. Teleportation is one of the avenues we are pursuing to explain how the ghost got inside the shield. Now ordinarily, I wouldn’t be allowed to share this information, but the video tape allows me to give you a cursory explanation of this still being researched ability. To make a long story short, some ghosts are capable of moving over large distances nearly instantaneously._ Agent F waited for the murmur of surprise to settle before starting again. _They do this by transforming themselves into pure energy, spectral energy, and willing this collected energy form of themselves to another location. When in this form, they can disappear and reappear anywhere, being made of spectral energy, they move faster than the speed of light. Gentlemen, the ghost shield isn’t made of a solid energy wall, it would use far too much energy if it were. The shield is like a very fine meshed net. Ordinarily, it’s far too fine for any ghost to slip through, but in this form they can. Now now,_ He raised his hands to calm the rising terror in the crowd. _The ghosts who have this ability number in the few dozen. It is a rare ability, even among the oddities that are the ghost creatures, so there is very little chance of a breach on a daily or even yearly basis, but the chance is still there. That is why there are GSU teams in every major city, just in case one of these powerful creatures gets past our shields and passive defense systems. Are there any other questions?_ Agent F leaned away from the podium and waited for the rest of their demanding inquiries to come crashing in.  
  
“He’s so full of shit.” Debbie moved back around to the other side of the counter to give her customer another refill. He was currently finishing off the last of his burger and gaping at the screen.  
  
Danny tore his eyes away from the television and swallowed down the last of his sandwich. “What’d mean? That sounds pretty cool to me, and likely. I mean he does do this for a living you know?” He silently hoped the press release didn’t go into any more detail. It looked like the GSU weren’t too keen on sharing information, and for that he was very grateful.  
  
The waitress rolled her eyes as she brought back another refill. “Because, well wait you weren’t around when the last attack happened. Well I don’t want to scare you kid, or ruin your vacation so I won’t give you too many particulars, but I can tell you this…” Debbie leaned over towards her teen customer again, not wanting this info to carry. “That flash of white light you saw and the grey static?”  
  
Danny nodded at her to continue and leaned in further.  
  
“Well, I was around when the last ghost attack happened and I was close enough to see one of those hybrid creatures transform. Ya see, they look human enough, and they even have human DNA, it’s how they can get past the ghost sensors and shields around most places, but they aren’t really human. When they transform into their true ghost form there’s this flash of light. Now I admit the flash I saw was…black. I know that sounds impossible, light can’t be black right? Well I’m telling you, I saw this guy go from as human looking as one of us, and then _poof_ there was this _black_ light and he was a ghost.” Debbie leaned back away from the counter and looked back up at the television screen. The press release replay was almost done.  
  
Danny felt of shiver go down his spine. From the looks of it Vlad attacked Amity Park four years ago, but for what reason he didn’t know. Worse, he had revealed the existence of half ghosts to everyone, what the hell was he thinking? “Oh wow! Um…that’s crazy…”  
  
The chocolate haired woman chuckled and slapped Danny on the back. “Take it easy kid, there’s nothing to worry about. The GSU keeps even the people outside of the Amity ghost shield safe. You and your family are in no danger here, even if you managed to come at an exciting time. Speaking of, won’t your parents be worried if you don’t get back soon? It’s already nearly 1:30.” Debbie picked up her customer’s cup and plate and walked it back towards the kitchen. The press release was just ending, and she didn’t want to miss the picture of the mystery ghost at the end. Nothing better to scare the cute teen with than claiming the ghost haunted around here or something. She walked over to ring the kid up, so he could get back to his family before they came to ring him up for worrying them. Debbie peered up over the top of the register as the Channel Nine news room came back on the screen.  
  
_Well Lance, that was certainly informative._  
  
_It sure was Tammy. Our boys at the GSU have given us a clear print out of the ghost’s picture to share with all our viewers. Remember if any of you see “someone”_ , the reporter paused to issue air quotes around the acknowledgement of the ghost’s personhood, _who looks like this please report to the authorities immediately. This is not some new punk style or an ordinary teen; it’s a dangerous ecto-entity._ Onto the screen flashed of picture of a young looking ghost. It had white hair and iridescent green eyes. The camera zoomed onto its young looking face and a large print warning: _Powerful and Dangerous_ blinked across the screen.  
  
Debbie stopped punching the bill through, shocked into pausing mid-press of a button. The close up of the ghost was unmistakable; the ghost looked just like the kid sitting not ten feet from her. She stole a quickly terror filling glance towards her only customer and backed away from the counter.  
  
Danny grimaced as reporter put air quotes around the “someone” part of his sentence. _Like I’m not even a person or something…_ He stared in alarm as the picture shifted to a very clear image of him flying through the skies over Amity Park last night. The image quickly zoomed into a picture perfect vision of his face, with a dire warning to stay away as he was powerful and dangerous. He squirmed uncomfortably in his seat as he felt the waitress, who had been nice so far, distance herself and stare at the back of his head. Danny took a deep breath and steeled himself; there was no avoiding this confrontation. While most people in his own, _what is it future?_ , didn’t recognize him as Danny Phantom there was a good chance, now that the barrier of humans having ghost powers being impossible was destroyed, that someone here would. The wayward teen superhero swallowed past a lump in his throat and turned back towards Debbie.  
  
Until he had turned around, she had been convinced she was wrong. A trick of the light, a bad picture, a faulty memory, anything was more likely than the fact a ghost and likely _ghost hybrid_ was sitting with her in the diner. Afterwards though, the pained fearful look in his eyes confirmed it for her. The brunette waitress worried the inside of her cheek indecision. She should call the authorities right this second and have this obviously dangerous creature hauled away somewhere the hell away from her, but… _but, it’s so…What Debbie? Kind? Young? Innocent or something? Get a hold of yourself! This is a ruthless violent creature that destroyed two GSU fighter jets and threatened your town. You **have** to call the police._ The decision made, Debbie reached for the phone hanging just a few inches to her left.  
  
“Wait!”  
  
She swung her eyes back towards the pleading and very young looking baby blues of the ghost currently sitting at her diner counter. She gripped the thick pink of the corded phone on the wall as the ghost shifted in its place at the bar.  
  
“Just um…I…owe you for lunch, at least let me pay you before you call the cops. Heh, you can’t get money from me after they run me out of town.”  
  
Debbie felt her heart leap into her throat. Here she was about to sic the dangerous GSU on this creature and he wanted to _pay_ for _lunch_? _Is this thing crazy?_ Wary over a trick to get close to her, she moved her hand away from the phone, and leaned against the doorframe of the entrance to the kitchen next to it. “I don’t want your money, whoever you stole it from.” She watched as the ki- _creature_ \- winced across from her. She narrowed her eyes and cursed her kind heart. “You’re a nice, whatever you are; ghost, more like hybrid aren’t ya’?” She watched as his eyes widened and got the confirmation she was looking for. “Listen, I like you, I don’t know why, but I do. That’s why I’m going to give you a five minute head start before I call the cops.”  
  
Danny blinked at the offer of reprieve. He’d thought the brunette woman across from him would just call the cops and duck for cover. “I...um-”  
  
“Get out of here brat, you’re wasting time. I _will_ call the authorities in five minutes whether you are sitting here or not, and don’t you dare leave any cash here neither.” Debbie turned away from the counter, daringly showing the ghost her back, before slipping back into the kitchen. If she didn’t know when he left exactly, the authorities couldn’t get it out of her, and she wouldn’t know what direction he ran off in either. She never told anyone but on the day of the last ghost attack, she knew why the older ghost hybrid had attacked, and it wasn’t the official story. If it had been her in that position, she’d have fought back too, and maybe that’s why she couldn’t believe that the hybrids, powerful as they were, were inhuman. Nothing inhuman cared enough to risk themselves for others.  
  
Danny jumped away from the bar and leaped for the door. He pushed it open and was about to sprint into the street, when he looked back into the quiet restaurant. He caught Debbie peering back into the main part of the diner from the kitchen and smiled the brightest nicest smile he could muster under the circumstances. “Thank you. I’ll never forget this, and I’ll pay you back some day.”  
  
The brunette rolled her eyes and pointed out of the door. “Scat ghost kid, four minutes and counting.”  
  
Danny nodded his head thankfully, and ran away from the bright glowing blue of the ghost shield. He rounded a few corners before resting against a wall to get his bearings. It was nearly 1:45 in the afternoon now and late enough for the sun to start slanting towards the west. All he had to do it look up and he’d know which way Wisconsin was. The sudden fugitive heard the whirling of sirens back towards the diner and shook his head. Debbie had been really nice to him, and even after hanging out with him, she still called the police. If someone as nice as Debbie could throw him under the bus like that, what would the rest of the world be like? Danny wasn’t sure, but he knew someone who could help him hide until he figured this crazy world out. He hadn’t been sure about going to Vlad before, but the last few minutes had clenched it for him. _There’s a serious chance he isn’t at Wisconsin anymore, especially not at that huge castle, after the attack four years back, but that’s the closest place and I could get some clues from there. At least it’s out of Amity Park._ Danny moved away from the wall and spied something to hide behind to transform. In a flash of bright light, he left the bonds of gravity behind and flew westward towards the Wisconsin area.  
  
Unbeknownst to him a digital signal was sent out when his ghost signature popped to life after transforming.

 

* * *

  

**Washington D.C. 12:45pm EST Pentagon debriefing room**

  
He tugged at the uncomfortable tie currently wrapped around his neck. He hated it almost as much as the polyester lined cotton monkey suit he forced to wear to these meetings. He much preferred the field operative issued suits to the bureaucratic nightmare wear he was suffering through at the moment. However, he was the leader of the Government Spectral Unit now, so he had to suffer small indignities like this to keep his organization running smoothly. The general in front of him blathered on in the slow drawl common to old entitled bureaucrats used to their own power and in love with their own voice. He resisted the urge to sneer and settled for shifting the cuff of his suit again, the itchy nightmare. When it looked like the general was winding down, he quickly interrupted, not wanting to sit through another moment of this waste of his precious time. “I completely understand your concerns General Birch and I will gladly implement all the recommendations you’ve made within reason,” _which means none of them,_ “however, my report address all of your, and in fact, all of the other Chiefs of Staff’s objections and problems, so forgive me, but I fail to see the point of this meeting. I have an organization to run and a dangerous ecto-entity to capture, so you’ll understand my urgency to leave.”  
  
“Commander, maybe you don’t see the reasons for this meeting, but I do. Your organization, one that you are so keen to get back to, failed to apprehend a dangerous ghost. The GSU costs millions of dollars a year to keep operating, and has been hemorrhaging funds for years. It’s a money sink, and worse it doesn’t even seem capable of defending the US citizens as commissioned.”  
  
“With all due respect Secretary, the ghost we faced yesterday was no ordinary creature. My initial reports and analysis of the situation indicates that creature was a hybrid. Hybrids are amazingly powerful and versatile beings and something incredibly difficult to capture and control.”  
  
“Yes,” Secretary of State Fitzgerald started, “I am well aware of the agency’s failures to capture of the ghost hybrids, this country’s greatest threat. In fact, the continued failure to do so is one of the reasons I am so unconvinced about the legitimacy of the continued operation of the GSU.”  
  
“Secretary, perhaps I need to remind you of the state of America _before_ my organization’s current incarnation under my leadership. Anarchy. Ghosts haunted every town in America, and hot spots, like Amity Park, were attacked weekly, tri-weekly even, by powerful and dangerous ecto-entities. They terrorized the citizens of these United States and the local and even national ghost hunters could do absolutely nothing to stop them. No professional in the world could stem the seemingly never-ending tide of ghosts flowing into our world. My leadership, and _my_ organization has done what no other has before it, stop the ghost threat. The number of ghost attacks around the world number in the dozens yearly instead of the hundreds of thousands.  Similar organizations around the world are modeled after our own, and yearly attend a conference we host, for plenty of money, to stay abreast of the current findings in the ghost community. The scientific community has never seen greater output, America has never had a greater input on the world scene, and we’ve done it all while destroying the ghosts and making our country a safer place on a _balanced_ budget.”  
  
“That’s a wonderful speech Commander, but one that has yet to be corroborated. I’ve had my assistants look into the financials for the GSU and the preliminary findings have it underwater by a long shot.” Secretary Fitzgerald leaned against the table on his palms. The current administration he served didn’t like the GSU, not at all familiar with the time ghost attacks were regular. Personally, he’d never seen the need to eliminate all those weak ghosts while the real threat, the hybrids, roamed free.  
  
“I respectfully disagree.” The GSU’s Head Commander leafed through the papers sitting in front of him. He hated bureaucracy. Jill usually took care of things like this for him, tackling the intricate questions while he made the inspiring fund grabbing speeches. She watched over the regular everyday operations while he attended to the grand vision of things. It was what he was best at; the long creative view had always been his strong point.  The mundane details like this just didn’t interest him and he expected his second in command, who wasn’t here at the moment, to know them and be able to spit them out at a moment’s notice.  
  
“Well if your _word_ is all we have to go on-”  
  
“Not at all Secretary Fitzgerald.” A new smooth voice preened from the other side of the room. The click of determined set steps in heels echoed throughout the room. “If I recall correctly, the annual international gala pulled in a record breaking 500 million dollars, easily covering the operation costs of the GSU for the first half of the year. The second 500 million was partially kindly donated by several captains of industry and partially made by local fundraisers by the grateful citizens of our great nation. After all of that was said and done, the patens for the GSU’s work and the Commander’s personal inventions, whose revenue he has so generously donated to the budget of the GSU, lead us to a 250 million windfall that was immediately reinvested in the organization in the R&D department, scholarships for the bright and upcoming in the next generation, and holiday bonuses for our hardworking employees. We balanced the budget netting a solid neutral after all of that, and we are in line to once again have a positive budget for this coming year. If the Chiefs of Staff would be so kind as to turn to pages 156, 203, and 315 of the GSU’s mid-year report, you’ll find the information yourself.” The speaker finished, turning in a prim tight business suit towards the rest of the room.  
  
A warm smug smirk tugged at the edges of the Head Commander’s face that he quickly suppressed. “Thank you Ms. Castle. As you can see Gentlemen, my organization is in fantastic financial shape.”  
  
“Well what about your failings to capture of the ghost hybrids?” This time Secretary of Defense Dirk Muller called the organization’s merit and ability into question.  
  
The Head Commander swiftly turned to face the newest opponent. “Failings? Yes I admit I have failed in the past to capture the ghost hybrids, but my opponent is cunning, and unlike the other hybrids in the record started out not only human, but one I was intimately familiar with. It and I were in social contact with each other at one time, and the creature uses this to his advantage. Nevertheless, the last capture was aborted purposefully.” He watched as the Joint Chiefs of Staff murmured in unease around him. “Easy Gentlemen, there’s a good reason for this. I need him to be a good scout for us and lead us to the nest.”  
  
“The…nest Commander?”  
  
“Yes Secretary Muller, the ant’s nest with the rest of his kind. You see, their leader is much too intelligent, much too calculating to reveal himself or the location of the rest of the traitors to democracy. However, a scout, like any good soldier, goes out into the world to test the waters. It forages for food or a safe place to make a new nest for the rest of the colony. This scout comes and goes, but is as weak as link as it is expendable. Gentlemen, do you know how to kill an ant colony?” He paused to look over his impromptu speech’s audience.

The room’s occupants, generals and the Cabinet combined, shook their heads not catching onto the GSU Commander’s meaning.  
  
“Why, you poison it of course. Oh but you must be careful, if your poison is too swift, it will kill only the scout who brought it in, or those who taste the food for their queen. Too slow and the entire colony will develop an immunity to it. You must make a poison strong and slow enough for it to reach the queen, once there, she must consume it before the first scout falls, and then by that time it’ll be much too late to stop her inevitable death. You see Gentlemen...” the Commander rounded the table and began walking to the head of the room.  
  
“This latest incident has afforded us a unique opportunity. It seems one of Plasmius’ scouts has wandered too far from the nest and right into our trap. But instead of making a play right this moment, a poison much too fast, I have decided to use a much deadlier method. We will monitor the little creature, and watch it carry us, the deadly toxin, back into the folds of its own colony. There we will disseminate among all of its members until even their leader Plasmius finds our influence too late and widespread to do anything about. Then, we would have finally caught them.”  
  
He finished the ant poisoning analogy with a wide sweeping glance of the room.  
  
“Gentlemen we are at a crossroads. As we speak, I have reports of the hybrid traveling outside of Amity, Michigan, and towards the Wisconsin area, the last known hiding spot of Plasmius. If we intercede now, capture it, we might lose this chance forever. With the creature in our grasp, it may appear as if we have the upper hand, but don’t be fooled, we’ve been in this position before. Whenever we capture one of its scouts, Plasmius sends out a,” the Commander paused to chuckle, “valiant and powerful rescue team, whose attempts have yet to fail. If we have the hybrid with us, we leave ourselves at the mercy of Plasmius’ never-ending conniving and shrewd planning. That is not a position I want to be in again. If we let the creature pass, there’s a good chance it will go right back to its leader, and back to the vulnerable nest where we can do real damage. Even if it doesn’t, we have the hybrid’s signature in the data base and being tracked by satellite. It will not escape.”  
  
The room was silent in the wake of the Commander’s stirring recommendation. He offered a chance to rid the country of their worrying menace forever. “What about the public?” This time it was the Sectary of the Interior that spook up.  
  
“No need to worry about that Secretary. The public has been informed of nothing, and all reports of hybrids have been denied and silenced. The creature is flying over and _towards_ uninhabited areas. The public has nothing to fear, and if there is any threat no matter how small, we will not hesitate to intervene immediately. You have my word on the matter.” The Commander crossed his arms over his chest and waited for their answer. There was no doubt in his mind they would agree, they were easily control and manipulated, and his years as head of the GSU through 3 Administrations had taught him well.  
  
“Well Commander, you drive a hard bargain, but it’s a solid plan, one without any foreseeable pitfalls for public safety. Because of this I will allow this strategy to continue, however I want periodic updates as the creature’s whereabouts and the status of the mission as a whole.” The Secretary of Defense finished up, gathering his things into his hands. This meeting was basically over.  
  
The Head Commander smirked and held out his hand to the first general preparing to exit the room. “Thank you for your support Secretary Muller and I promise you will not be disappointed.” The Commander took the Secretary’s hand into a fierce shake, a testament to his physical strength undiminished by years in the upper echelons of the bureaucracy.  
  
“Yeah well, you just make sure you don’t screw this up, and I’ll look into convincing the president to approve those forays into the Ghost World your people are always clamoring for.” The Secretary wasn’t of the same opinion as that of Ronan Fitzgerald, the Secretary of State. He was old enough to remember how much the GSU had done to stem and stop the ghost threat. Muller shuffled a few more items off onto one of his many aids and headed for the door with the rest of the Cabinet.  
  
“Oh Muller?” the Commander called out just as he met the threshold for the meeting room.  
  
“Yeah?” It was well past the scheduled lunch hour, the meeting had run over by a long time, and he was ready for something to eat.  
  
“When I put Plasmius’ head onto a pike, you’ll be the first to find out about it. I’m sure your son would…appreciate the gesture of that monster’s death.”  
  
Dirk Muller grimaced before turning around for the door. “I’d rather you send me the creature’s heart just to prove your anatomy team correct, because as far as I’m concerned it doesn’t have one.” He said over his shoulder walking quickly down the hall.  
  
The Head Commander of the GSU sighed and slumped against the meeting room table. That had been a long and annoying emergency meeting. He pulled the tie straining around his neck into a looser arrangement and fiddled with the cuffs of his suit some more. _I hate this dumb three piece of shit._ He thought before he felt calloused slender hands begin working the knot back tighter on his tie. “Damn it Jill, I’m off duty for a few minutes, leave the tie be.” He felt more than heard Jill’s snickering. The only evidence of it was held in her warm honey brown eyes.  
  
“Forgive me Commander, but until we are safely back in GSU headquarters, you are required to at least _look_ the part of the Head Commander of the GSU.” She re-rolled the cuffs of his suit into a reasonable looking fold, and finished tightening his tie. Her commanding officer never did like anything but the regulation issued spandex suits the GSU underlings wore. Not that she blamed him, business suits weren’t really her style either.  
  
“Oh come on Jill,” he half whined, “no one’s watching. If I lose the tie for a few minutes no one will be the wiser. Besides I just spent the last few hours dealing with the F.B. I at least deserve a little reprieve because of that.” He crossed his arms as the tie was firmly re-tighten once more on his large frame and threw up his hands. There was really no arguing with Jillian when she got her mind made up about something, it was why she made such a good second-in-command.  
  
“Stop fussing about it. The sooner you get presentable, the sooner we can leave and get back to headquarters where it’s safe.” Jillian Castle stepped away from her superior and began strutting towards the door, knowing he’d follow. “I have a few new reports for you.”  
  
“Is that why you were late?” He grabbed a thick and bulging folder from his second, a secretary, scientist, and military leader combined into one.  
  
“Partially. I was delayed from departing by Agent’s F’s incompetence. He can read a speech well enough, but he can’t write it. If it wasn’t best he deliver the message as the spokesperson for the GSU in Amity Park, I would have done it to save time. Secondly, I was gathering all of that for you. That’s the latest analysis of the hybrid’s data. I’m not sure who the fuck this is Commander, but it’s not 2nd Priority that’s for sure. Sure its energy signature is close, and the techies down in Amity Park, the miserable shits, couldn’t tell the difference when handed a line up, but I know this creature like the back of my hand. It didn’t fight like it, or think like it. It didn’t look like the hybrid we know, and whether or not ghosts can change their appearance, hybrids aren’t known to, so that’s makes it even more unlikely. Finally, the creature walked right up to GSU central in Amity and acted _surprised_ the sensors went off. Either that hybrid’s stupider than can be imagined, or it was honestly surprised we were there. I’m sure it’s not the former, from how it fought, so it must be the latter, not matter how ridiculous _that_ is. There’s also the question of where this ‘bogey’ came from. You know as well as I the number of hybrids out there, and there’s only one this creature’s age, so your guess is as good as mine about the creature’s appearance.” Jill shrugged up one shoulder as they turned the final corner to exit the pentagon.  
  
The Commander frowned as he took in his second’s comments. They mirrored his nearly exactly with the missing sections being the thoughts on its fighting style. “So if this isn’t 2nd Priority, then who are you little ghostling?” He mused out loud as they slid into the limo waiting out from to take them back to GSU headquarters. He had no idea. It was obviously not a ghost, he concluded as he finished flipping through the rest of the highlighted paper his second had given him. At least it wasn’t purely ghost, so that precluded it just being a very good copy cat. That meant it was a legitimate hybrid, and with the only other hybrid its age ruled out, it made it a new one all together, something he couldn’t even begin to fathom. Where had it even come from? He settled into the seat for the hour drive back to his domain.  
  
Jillian kicked off her heels next to the Commander, happy to settle in as well. “So Commander, when we get back, what do you thinking about changing back into spandex and grabbing a nice big deli sandwich for lunch?” She spared a tired glance in his direction. She’d gotten on the next flight from Amity to DC after she he finished the preparations in Michigan. She’d arrived late last night into her house, but didn’t sleep. She had realms of data to go through in order to prepare for the meeting today. The Commander had had a much shorter meeting the day before to explain to situation in Amity, but the one today she needed to be prepared for. If she hadn’t gotten stuck in traffic on the way over, she’d been on time. Luckily, the Commander never held it against her as long as she got her job done and made him look good in front of the F.B. She snickered lightly as the meaning of that particular nickname of theirs came back to her. _Fucking Bureaucracy indeed._  
  
“Oh no I was thinking several chili cheese dogs, but I’ll take deli sandwiches if you buy my favorite dessert Ms. Castle.” He licked his lips at the thought of chocolate and closed his eyes, head falling back into the soft leather cushions of the limousine.  
  
“Sir, for Spumoni’s deli delights I’ll buy you dessert any day.” Jillian retorted as the car pulled into DC’s formidable traffic. _Looks like it’ll be some time yet before we get anything to eat._ Something on her wrist beeped and got her attention. The GSU second-in-command glanced down at her wrist communicator. She’d tied it to the GSU global positioning satellites only this morning to keep track of the ghost hybrid’s travels. The beep told her the hybrid was currently crossing Lake Michigan half way to Wisconsin. _Fly fast little ghostling, and bring us closer to ‘Daddy’ Plasmius._

 

* * *

  
  
Danny gazed down at the seemingly endless expanse of water below him stretching in all directions. He was flying directly into the sun, and at this time of day, that made it due west. Amity was a lot closer to the Lake Huron side of Michigan than Lake Michigan he was currently crossing, but with how fast he was flying, it didn’t matter. In any case, he’d be into Wisconsin in only 45 more minutes.  
  
Danny sighed as his hair flipped in the wind behind a small ghost shield he’d made to stop the bugs and other assorted debris from smacking in the face at high speed. On the way out of town, he’d picked up a few new sets of clothes. 20 dollars or not, he’d had no choice but to shoplift. That’s when he learned most places in Amity area had a ghost alarm and sensors. As soon as he’d used his ghost powers to try and shoplift something a big red alarm had dropped out of the ceiling and cried _Ghost Alert_ as loud as possible. He’d been forced to turn whatever else he needed invisible and slip out through the floor before the ghost shield on the place turned on.  
  
Outside, he’d blended in well enough, items still invisible on his person. He’d stuffed the clothes and the few other items he’d stolen, snacks, toiletries and the like, into an also stolen duffle bag. He didn’t know how long he’d be on the run or the move, but he’d picked up enough stuff to last for two weeks. At the moment, he was flying over the last part of the lake, the opposite shore coming into view. He’d had a fair amount of time to think about everything at had happened in the last few hours, and he’d come to some conclusions.  
  
_First conclusion: I should be dead. This future is so obviously different from my own, that I should be really dead. I mean I guess Clockwork’s warning said ‘irreparable damage’ to the timeline, and I also guess that this isn’t irreparable damage level yet, and maybe this is how it’s supposed to be after the changes I made in the past, but plenty just isn’t right. All of the ghost security, Vlad attacking Amity Park, since when is he so stupid, and the public knowing about halfas. It’s all so surreal, and if Vlad attacked Amity four years back, and he was a family friend like I wanted to happen, then there’s no way I got powers. I mean my parents must have known how it happened, so there would be a lot more precautions in the lab to prevent another accident from happening. Which if that’s true, doesn’t explain the press report from that GSU guy talking about **“hybrids”**_ _plural. Or maybe I do still have ghost powers, and I got them sooner because the portal got built faster with Vlad’s help? Ah…Christ man. This shouldn’t be so complicated. Second conclusion: I wish Clockwork wouldn’t be so damn cryptic. I’m getting the sense that Clockwork knew about all of this shit, and has been giving me clues that can be used multiple times. As if telling me to trust Vlad, as much as I hate the guy, hasn’t panned out multiple times. If only his warning about a time limit was more obvious, stupid time ghost._  
  
Danny paused in his internal monologue and shook his head in exasperation. Clockwork was a subject that both confused and irritated him. _I’m also still wearing his Medallion, which leads me to the next point. Third Conclusion: He wants me to visit him. There’s no other reason I can think of for his time piece to still be around except him wanting a reason to talk to me again, as if he couldn’t just pop up himself. Obviously, he wants me to come to **him** , which is annoying._  
  
The landscape swiftly changed from the soft blues of Lake Michigan to the deep greens and browns of land. Several small lakeside towns passed underneath Danny’s nearly frantic flight before giving way to the rural countryside. This part of the country was mostly “Southern Canada”, a combination of small rural towns separated by large expanses of untouched wilderness.  
  
Danny slipped back into his pensive state as the land beneath him changed into forest. _Well this is the first time in like a week I’ve had time to myself to think, and I’m not even sure what to think about. The last week was crazy, my own adventures in being hunted not included. I’m not sure what to make of my parents honestly getting along with Vlad so well, or Vlad being not as big of a dick as normal. I didn’t think he could actually be nice, and **care** about someone. Most of the time he’s so manipulative, and a jerk. If he was that nice all the time in the future…well ignoring his offers for “apprenticeship” or something would be a lot harder. I’m both glad and upset he isn’t so nice in the future. And I’m not sure what makes me more uncomfortable with the “Vlad can nice too!” revelation from this time traveling mess. Is it the fact Vlad can be nice, but just chooses to act like a dick or that people can change so completely as to be nearly unrecognizable? Sometimes I like to think that people never change, good people are good just because they are, and evil people are bad because they are. It’s like an inherent quality or something, but if… **But** if that’s not really the case, what’s to stop me from becoming…I mean even now…_  
  
Danny shuddered as the forest close to Vlad’s Wisconsin residence came into view. He was only a few minutes from the castle of the former Wisconsin Dairy King now, so he slowed his flight to a moderate pace. He didn’t want to zoom past it. Danny pulled up to the western edge of what should be Vlad’s grounds, only to find them in total disarray. In fact, even the castle itself was basically falling apart. Some of it looked like the result of years of disrepair and disuse, but some other parts… _Why is there a black scotched hole in the side of the building?_ Danny wondered as he hovered near the blackened opening. In his humble opinion it looked like an energy burn, one made either by a large ecto-blast or an especially powerful spectral weapon of some sort. The ghost powered teen landed just inside the hole on the western wall and peered inside into the dark interior. “Um…Hello?” Danny’s voice echoed off the empty barren walls of the castle.  
  
The room he had landed in was an old living room. Upturned tables still lay, though swollen and beginning to rot in the elements, in the room next to broken vases and shattered glass mirrors. The shadows of opulence still hung over the room, with expensive looking tapestries hung from the wall, torn and burnt in odd places, caught in the signs of a struggle.  
  
There was a pervasive feeling of emptiness in the whole space, and Danny realized with a start, there wasn’t even the ambient ghost energy he always sensed when around Vlad’s house. He stepped further into the space, carefully picking through and stepping over the remains of the destroyed room. The door on the other side of the space hung precariously off its hinges and Danny had to gently pull it to the side to prevent it from falling in. _Whoever had lived here, however long it ago it was, is definitely long gone._ Danny thought as he walked into the main hall of the Castle’s western side.  
  
Noticeably absent were the bright gold and green decorations, testaments to Vlad’s unerring devotion to the Greenbay Packer’s. The marble tile floors were covered in dust and a mysterious fine power. The walls were nearly crumbling on the exterior facing portions, or had more scorches and large dents on the interior facing sections.  
  
The carpeted areas were ripped to shreds, burnt, or stained with something so close in color to dried blood that it gave Danny shivers. There were no light fixtures throughout the whole of the areas of the castle he’d so far explored, and Danny was thankful for ghost’s enhanced night vision. He finally came to main part of the castle, the grand staircase, or where he remembered it being in any case. Instead of the thick marble banisters of his memory and the shining gold tinted marble steps, there was nothing but a gaping hole. It went straight down from the second floor, where he had entered, to the first, where there was even more extreme damage.  
  
The first floor was an indistinct hodgepodge of destroyed furniture, blackened floor and walls, and violent splatters of dark brown, that in Danny’s opinion shouldn’t still be so clear or there at all. He peered down the edge of the broken stairway, contemplating whether or not to head downstairs, when a crash came from off to the left. Danny turned his head at the sound that echoed from towards the original entrance to the castle.  
  
_Well that came from downstairs, so I guess that’s where I’m going._ He still couldn’t sense any ghosts, _looks like they got the Dairy King too_ , so it was likely it was someone human. That only brought up more questions.  
  
Vlad’s castle was in the middle of nowhere basically, with any close city at least an hour’s drive away. That ruled out random local kids wanting to explore. It was also surrounded by a lot of woods, but obviously abandoned. So that ruled out campers looking to stock up on supplies or get out of the “camping experience”. There were no cars when he came in, and the roads weren’t well tended to this far out because no one lived here.  
  
All in all, who could be making the banging noises coming only feet away from him were a small list of beings, none of whom made sense at the moment to be here. It only made Danny more curious as he rounded the last corner, having turned invisible a few feet back, to sneak a peek into the next room. What the teen hero saw shocked him.  
  
Inside were two kids, no older than twelve, shifting through some boxes under what would have been the sink in the kitchen had the building been still intact. One of the kids tossed a piece of pipe out of the way, and the repetitive clanging sound suddenly had a source.  
  
Danny shifted back around the edge of the corner and held back the urge to sigh in relief. They obviously weren’t dangerous, but it didn’t explain how they got there. One thing’s for sure though, they were definitely human. He moved away from the corner near the kitchen and transformed. He hadn’t wanted the light from the transformation to carry into the other room and spook the other kids. Danny took a deep calming breath, ignoring the tickle of the dust floating in the air, and walked around the corner.  
  
He was wearing stolen duds at the moment, the most obvious being a new hooded jacket with the symbol for Abercrombie and Fitch on the breast pocket. _If you’re going to steal, at least get something good right?_ He refocused himself on the pair in front of him. _At the very least they can tell me what happened around here. No way a fight as big as this one didn’t cause stories with the locals._ And they were locals, Danny had decided, they had to be. Maybe some kids from a Boy Scout troop got lost and wandered off. “Hey…” He said as he waved at the kids seated a few feet from him.  
  
The two of them turned around quickly, almost fast enough to blow the tops of their hoodie jackets back and away from their faces. Two pairs of bright purple eyes stared at the sudden addition to the room with growing worry, before turning back to one another. “Uh oh.” They said in unison, before swiftly standing to their feet and backing up towards the hole where the kitchen sink should have been.  
  
“No wait! It’s ok, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m uh…my name’s Danny-” He hadn’t pulled the top of his own jacket hood down yet.  
  
“Danny huh? That’s a cool name.” One of the kids answered.  
  
“Quiet Nate, we aren’t supposed to talk to strangers.”  
  
“Yeah well, we aren’t supposed to be _here_ either. So there.” The left child retorted.  
  
“So you’re Nate are you?” Danny crossed part-way over to the two pre-teens.  
  
“Oh yeah!” Nate, the one on the left, answered before getting smacked by the other kid in the room.  
  
“Why are you answering that? We aren’t supposed to give out our names either!”  
  
“Ah, don’t be such a worry wart Nick. Besides you said my name first.”  
  
“He is right you know.” Danny commented before crouching down next to them. “So could either of you two-” Danny started before he was cut off by something hot and painful slamming into his left side. He simultaneously held his stinging side and spinning head, trying to re-gather his bearings on the floor. Before he could make much headway, he noticed something silver and black with a high pitched whine pointing directly at his head. “Wah is-…”  
  
“Stay right where you are! If you so much as wiggle a pinky finger ghost, I’ll splatter your ectoplasmic brains across the far wall.”  
  
Danny felt ice settle into his being as his vision cleared enough to see his attacker. _It can’t be_ … “Jazz?”

**…then Danny might want to stay asleep.**

 


	11. If You’re Feeling Like Dorothy…

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Questions, a harrowing escape, safe haven.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes well, back on the horse as it were. Here comes the newest chapter.

The dark-haired teen lay stark still from his position on the floor, gun pointed directly at his forehead. On the other end of the weapon was someone he was both glad and confused to see. “Jazz?” Danny repeated, still amazed that his sister was on the other end of the gun.

The red haired girl’s eyes narrowed, before she hoisted the gun slightly closer to his head. “How do you know my name?”

The shock of surprise, which had previously settled into a soft tingle, was now jumping back to lightning bolt strength as it coursed through his consciousness. _How do I know your name? You’re my sister Jazz…aren’t you?_ “I…um-”

“We told him!”

Danny’s eyes shifted slightly from the gun pointed only inches from his nose to the boy who had spoken up in his defense.

“You did? Why would you tell a stranger, a _ghost_ stranger something so important Nick?” Jasmine didn’t bother avoiding his name; she’d heard both of them tell the ghost in front of her their names earlier.

“I didn’t think it was a bad idea. He’s really nice Jasmine.”

“Yeah,” Nate started defensively, “he hasn’t attacked us or anything!”

That’s when Jasmine realized something and swung her full attention back to the ghost in front of her. “That’s really interesting, but you know what? Nate and Nick only _ever_ call me ‘Jasmine.’ Never Jazz. But you know who does call me Jazz?” She stopped to flick the setting on her gun to full power. “Jack Fenton.” She smoothly switched targets to the middle of the ghost’s chest. “Did he send you here? Did he capture you and send you after us?” She leveled at the being in front of her, voice heavy with accusation.

“Wait what? Why would-”

“Nuh-uh,” Nick cut in this time, “he’s not even a ghost.”

“Yeah, we didn’t even sense anything, well except-”

“Yeah but that was-” Nick interrupted back.

“-have you seen Daniel around?” they both asked simultaneously.

Jasmine furrowed her eyebrows, trying to discern the boys’ point. She hated when they finished each other’s sentences or spoke at the same time. It made her feel like she was missing half of the conversation. “No why would I? The only ghost the scanner picked up was this one.” She explained with a wave of her free hand.

“Yeah but the scanner can’t tell the difference between ghosts in that mode, just that they are around-” Nate spoke in his most exasperated tone.

“- _and,_ ” Nick picked up where the other boy had left off, “we can. We totally sensed Daniel around here somewhere-”

-and we figured he’d be trying to bring us back home by now.” They both concluded as one.

“Well, I guess I can change the mode to look for a specific ghost signature, but that doesn’t explain where _he_ came from.” Jasmine focused her attention back to the, now maybe, ghost in front of her.

“I-uh snuck inside. One of my friends dared me.”

“Don’t bullshit me! I know this,” she gestured once again with her free hand, the one with the gun never so much as wiggling away from its position over Danny’s heart,” is just some disguise. So why don’t you stop lying, because the scanner doesn’t.”

Before Danny could respond, Nate and Nick did it for him. “We already told you. The scanner picked up Daniel. This guy’s totally human.” They had resorted to speaking at once in frustration.

“Stop talking at the same time, you know I hate that, and if you did sense him, where is he then?” Jasmine huffed and set her left hand against her hip, getting more annoyed by the second with the boys’ tenacity.

“Well I don’t know-” Nick started only to have Nate complete the sentence for him.

“- but _you_ have the scanner. So put down the stupid gun-”

“-and look for him already.” Nick finished the other boy’s sentence with a sighed whoosh of air.

“Like I’m going to-”

“Listen, I hate to interrupt, what with the gun pointed at me and everything, but could any of you tell me what you are talking about?”

Three pairs of eyes honed in on Danny’s position on the floor.

“I mean ghosts, scanners, insisting I’m like, a ghost or something. Did I fall into crazy land or what?” He asked while levering himself up onto his elbows.

Jasmine narrowed her eyes, and sent a warning shot next to the too human looking ghost. “I _said_ stay still. Next time,” she slid the gun down a few inches and snapped it down a notch in power, “I’ll just blast off you ‘little friend’ so I’d suggest staying still.”

“Got it! Not even _thinking_ about wiggling.” _Geez! What has gotten into Jazz? She was never this aggressive._ Danny felt the residual heat from the blast next to his skull. _And she was never this good of a shot either. Well I’m glad **that** improved._

“Jasmine come on, let him up.” Nate implored, walking over to tug on the arm holding the gun.

“Yeah we’re wasting time. If we don’t have to leave right this second-”

“Then help us re-stock these boxes.” Nick finished for the both of them.

“Re-stock the boxes? You mean you came all the way out here by yourselves to fill up the reserve supplies?” Jasmine was more than a little exasperated at the thought. “You know it’s dangerous out here, and you aren’t supposed to go anywhere without me or Daniel, especially without telling anyone.” She spoke while sliding her eyes off of the humanoid ghost in front of her, keeping it only in her peripheral vision. 

Nate looked visibly wilted. “Yeah well it was important. We might be coming back through here soon, and-”

“-If mother and father got here first, they would be sure to confiscate this.” A new voice interrupted from the shadows of the ruined living room on the other side of the kitchen entrance. He stepped into the room, a black device held dangling between thumb and index finger. “Is this what you two were searching for?”

“Uh-oh!” Nick and Nate said at the same time already backing from the room.

Danny couldn’t believe his eyes. It passed the Guys in White rejects, and Debbie, and the calls to his best friend’s houses. It even passed the ominous burnt out mansion he was currently kneeling on the floor of, sister threatening and cajoling him with deadly accurate aim. On the opposite side of the room, sporting his dark hair and blue eyes that were like his, but not, was his doppelganger. _No. Nononononononono….this isn’t…that can’t be…I…_ Danny grappled mentally, unable to even think coherently at the sight a few feet from him.

“Daniel! When did you get here?” Jasmine lowered the sights on her ecto-weapon a notch; maybe the boys and this stranger were telling the truth.

“Oh about-”

“We told you! He got here like 15 minutes ago or something. But you never listen to-” the two of them started at once.

“Yeah that’s great,” Jasmine started while eying the strange boy on the floor. “You,” she started with a small wave of her gun towards Danny, “you aren’t a ghost are you.” It wasn’t a question, she was nearly completely sure of it now.

Danny was too shell shocked to catch the question. His heart was pounding; his limbs felt like jelly, and if everyone else in the room wasn’t referring to the newest member of it, Danny would be sure he was hallucinating from stress or fatigue. He managed to tear his eyes away from the person with the face that was his, but not, and gaped up at Jazz. “I…w-what?” He stuttered out.

Jasmine rolled her eyes and took the gun off of the teenager below her, thinking it was causing his nervous-like stuttering. “I _said_ you aren’t a ghost, and you’re not. I guess the twins were telling the truth.” She slung the weapon onto the belt loop on her back pocket and sent a hand down towards the now pale looking teen. “Come on, get up. I promise no one is going to shoot at you or something.” The red-haired girl managed a small smile through her own growing sense of dread. _We really shouldn’t **be** here right now._

Danny reached up and grasped the offered appendage with a tremor filled hand, using more of Jazz’s strength to get off of the ground than his own. His legs still felt like Jell-o in an earthquake. “I, um, yeah I’m not. I’ve been saying that for awhile now. Um, who’s that?”  He asked while pointing over to the raven haired teen leaning against the wall, arms crossed.

“Oh yeah, I guess I should actually introduce myself. My name’s Jasmine,” she explained pointing to herself, “do _not_ call me ‘Jazz’. Those two morons over there-”

“Hey!-”

“Are my younger brothers. Nickolas and Nathaniel. If you couldn’t tell before, my obnoxious baby brothers are twins.”

“We are not obnoxious!” They protested at the same time.

“No, you’re just disobedient and reckless.” The dark haired boy sniped from across the room. He sent a disconcertingly familiar smile Danny’s way. “My name is Daniel, and Jasmine’s my older sister. Now I believe it’s your turn for introductions.” He suggest before raising an eyebrow at Danny’s odd stare. “What?”

There was no way he could deny it now. _The mannerisms, the speech patterns, hell after taking a good look at him, I can nearly see…Oh God, I refuse to even think it._ “I um nothing. It’s just my name is Daniel too. Oh, but everyone calls me Danny.” The time traveling halfa slid a glance down towards the youngest members of the room, eyes roving as discreetly as possible over their faces. _Oh Jesus, they have the same color eyes as…_

“That’s totally cool. Hey, that means I can say Daniel and get both of your attention at once.” Nate blurted out with an excited grin. He’d never met someone his brother’s age who had introduced himself before, and he planned on exploiting it for some fun.

“Daniel’s a common name. Honestly, I would have preferred if father had just given me his name.” Daniel moved from against the door frame of the entrance to the kitchen and walked over to stand in front of the twins. “You two are in serious trouble. How many times have I told you not to wander off? It’s incredibly dangerous, and more importantly, mother is worried sick. You’re lucky father is too busy working on the systems for the RV to notice you slipping off, but we have maybe an hour before he does, and then we’ll all be in trouble, and I am _not_ getting grounded over your hardheaded shortsightedness. We are leaving _now_ , and yes I am the boss of you.” Daniel finished the speech by ensnaring both of the twins’ wrists in each of his hands and nearly dragging them bodily from the room. He stopped at the juncture between the kitchen and the living room next door before adding, “Jasmine are you coming or not?”

“Yeah, I’m coming, just give me a second. I just want to grab some batteries for the weapons; we are running low back at Camp.” She leaned over and looked through the boxes Nick and Nate had been rummaging through just minutes before, before grabbing a few medium size spheres. Jasmine stuffed them in her pockets before turning towards Danny. “Listen sorry about pointing that weird looking gun at you. Just forget about it. In fact, forget you ever met me, it’ll be for the best actually.” She turned and began for the door, before something nagging at her made her stop at the threshold. “Hey, how did you get in here? I mean is someone going to be looking for you or…” She trailed off as she noticed the pale drawn look on the other teen’s face.

“I, uh, well…I don’t…” _Yeah real smooth Fenton. Get it together!_ Danny took a deep breath before starting again. “I sorta lied about being dared to come in here. To be honest, I don’t really know where I am. I woke up in the forest out there, and came towards the castle because I thought someone might be living here, but I guess I was wrong. Um, could you at least tell me what state I’m in?” _Please don’t be able to tell I’m lying like you always can._ He hurriedly prayed.

Jasmine felt a small shock of worry and surprise go through her system. _How in the world did a kid his-_ She cut off her own mental question, suspicion immediately replacing her natural empathy. To call the story sketchy would be generous, and there was too much depending on her to make a mistake at the moment. “You don’t remember how you got here at all? Do you remember the date?” It was possible that the boy in front of her just had short term amnesia from a concussion. Just as well, the tale was far too convenient.

“Yeah it’s like April 23rd or something right?” That was the last day he had seen before going back into the future.

Jasmine barely contained her surprise this time at Danny’s last sentence. “No. It’s May 5th, 2005. You’re missing like a week of time. Did you hit your-”

“Jasmine!”

The bright red haired teen turned around at the sound of someone calling her name. “Hold on a second Daniel, I think this kid’s in real trouble.” She leaned over and grabbed the likely amnesiac boy next to her, and pulled him along with her into the next room with her brothers. “He doesn’t know where he is, and he’s missing a week of time. I think we should at least drop him off in the nearest town’s police station. I brought the Hercules Hover with me, so we can just take him in that.” She finished before ruthlessly shoving away the uncomfortable feeling crawling up her spine that they were taking too long.

Daniel narrowed his eyes as he gave the male stranger a once over. There was something disturbingly familiar about his face, and more importantly, he never trusted anyone. It was too dangerous to take someone they didn’t know with them, even an hour out of the way max to get them to civilization. _We’ve been here too long **already** ; we need to get back to Camp._ “Listen I don’t know if you’re lying,” he continued on even after his sister and the other teen started to interrupt, “and I don’t really care because it doesn’t matter. We don’t have time to waste taking you even remotely close to the nearest town. You’re on your own Danny. Jasmine let’s go.” He sent his sister a particularly pointed meaningful look before glaring down at his sputtering brothers, still trapped by the wrists, daring them to contradict him.

“Daniel,” Jasmine started with her lips pursed, “I’m not leaving him here by himself, in a burnt out house, with no food, no idea where he is, and barely any sense of time. That’s absurd.” She watched as he younger brother rolled his eyes, and it sent a wave of irritation through her system. He was always acting like he knew better than her, and she was definitely the older out of the two of them.

“What’s absurd is your insistence that we take a stranger with us. You know as well as I the dangers of leaving camp and _especially_ of trusting people we don’t know. You’d think you’d have learned by now, but maybe I’ve assigned too steep a learning curve to-”

“Damn it; do not start your high-browed insults on me right now. This kid probably has a concussion and is suffering from short term retrograde amnesia. We-”

“And don’t start your pathetic pseudo-psychological babble on me. He’s probably just faking it to gain some sympathy. Turn off the empathy meter for five seconds Jasmine a-”

“You are such an asshole Daniel! Why can’t we just-”

“Listen you insufferable prat, f-”

“Insufferable pr-! Daniel, I’m in charge here. Don’t tell me I’m not, because you know mom and dad will ground you into eternity if you disobey me. I’m telling you, I’m taking Danny _and_ the twins with me in the Hercules Hover, but you are free to get back however you want.”  Jasmine let go of Danny’s wrist long enough to cross her arms and stare her brother down. He was so damn paranoid sometimes, it was unbearable. And he had this smug superior manner about him whenever he argued or thought he was right. _Condescending prick, sounds just like dad sometimes, no matter how much he says he doesn’t._ The ginger teen concluded before walking towards Daniel to extricate her youngest brothers from his grasp.

“Um, yeah hey…” Danny started before his sister made it across the room to the rest of the group. He waited until the anger buzzed eyes of everyone else in the room locked onto his. “I’m sorry I started this argument, but can’t you at least drop me off in walking distance of the nearest town? I mean maybe like 10 miles away, that would be close enough.” He watched as his alternate version sneered over at him before rolling his eyes.

“Just where do you think you are exactly? The closest town is nearly 50 miles away, and I’m not sure they have even 1,000 people living there.” He steadfastly ignored the tugging his eldest sibling was doing at his wrists to get to the twins. She couldn’t break his hold if she wanted to; he was much stronger than she was.

“Oh he doesn’t know, because he doesn’t know where he is, like I already told you.” Jasmine stopped to give an especially big tug. “Let go.” She gritted out irritably.

Daniel easily resisted, not bothering to even pull back. “ _No_.” He answered her demand by steadfastly resisting her even stronger attempts. “Jasmine we have to leave. We can’t stay outside of the shields this long, even with the suppressers on, I…” he stopped suddenly cognizant of the stranger in the room. “The way I got out here is going to get their attention. You know that.”

Danny frowned in concern as the incongruous piece of information was taken in, ignoring the debate of sorts going on in front of him. While Vlad did live out in the middle of nowhere, the surrounding area’s towns were famous for being technological centers of the state, if not the country. He realized with barely contained dismay that the reason for the towns’ economical and technological growth was likely the influence of Vlad’s companies on the Wisconsin area. “I, uh listen…I just need to get somewhere with internet or something. I’m actually looking for an old family friend.” _Better just to get this over with now._ “I’m sure I could look him up, but uh, not until I get into a town. So are you sure you couldn’t just-”

“Who are you looking for?” Daniel carefully shouldered his sister behind him loosening his grip on the twin’s wrists, his near innate sixth sense for danger kicking in.

“Oh well, his name is,” _Here it goes,_ “Vlad Masters. The last plac-” Danny watched as the two younger boys were shuffled behind their older siblings, Jazz taking the ecto-weapon back out, and Da- , the person who wasn’t him, shifting into a fighting stance.

“How exactly do you know-”

“Stupid question Jasmine,” Daniel said interrupting already knowing where she was going with that sentence, “better one, when did you send the signal out to the GSU? Don’t lie or make me beat it out of you, I don’t have time for that.” He sent a polar chill level icy glare towards their enemy, already berating himself for not getting his family out of there sooner.

Jasmine ignored her younger sibling’s rude curt mannerism. He was always like that when he was worried, scared, or angry, and he was likely all three at the moment. She was too busy trying not to beat herself up over mistaking this obvious danger for a defenseless kid. “We don’t have time for that either Daniel, let’s just get into the Hover and haul ass. If we hurry we can still get out of here before anyone from the GSU gets remotely close. The nearest base is in Amity, and even if they take jets out to get to us, they’ll take 90 minutes or something. If I use the cloak-” Jasmine stopped her sentence when she heard a high pitched ominous sound coming from outside. The choppy whirl of something coming through the air towards their current position cut through the sudden silence of the room. In an instant, she knew they were in serious trouble. _The only reason there’d be aircraft this far out…_ She started to think before shoving it away before focusing her mind onto the situation at hand.

At the same time, the twins jumped behind their older siblings, before trading a covert glance.

Wordlessly, Nick lifted a hand towards Daniel’s back pocket, reaching for the device he’d dangled in front of them when he first arrived. It was the reason he and his brother had come all this way. He looked down at the wrist reaching for the pocket, and suppressed a frown at the silver bracelet wrapped tightly around it. If he was lucky in a few seconds it wouldn’t matter.

Just then, Nate jumped to the side at the sound of a sonic boom overhead. He was nowhere near startled, but he needed his older brother distracted.

Nick took a deep breath at the same instant Nate jumped, and plucked up the device the moment Daniel was distracted. The amethyst eyed boy shoved it into his pocket before his older brother could notice and slunk over towards his twin.

Another boom sounded from above them, and this time no one had to fake shock. It didn’t sound like the rumbling boom of a jet flying over head. It was more like something slamming into the earth.

“Come on, they’re dropping off soldiers! We have to get out of here. Jasmine, take the twins around the back, and don’t let that GSU flunky out of your sight. I’m going to go talk to the welcome party.” Daniel strode away to the exit to the room, back towards the original entrance to the mansion.

Jasmine watched him go with a growing pit of apprehension swirling in her stomach. By the sounds of it, there was a practical army swarming outside waiting for them. If they didn’t get out of there right _now_ they could be captured! _But…_ There was just something about the raven haired teen in front of her. She couldn’t place a finger on it, and she didn’t have time to contemplate it at the moment, but the young man in front of her _reminded_ her of something or someone. She narrowed her eyes in thought as her youngest brothers backed into the back of her legs. She didn’t trust him; she _shouldn’t_ trust him, but the desperate naked fear in his eyes, contrasted greatly with the feeling of betrayal in her center. When she heard the opening explosions of battle, she made her decision. Danny was coming with her, after they searched him for bugs or tracers of course. The scarlet haired teen made a vague gesture with the hand holding the gun. “You, you’re coming with us. I honestly don’t know what’s gotten into me, but I don’t think you brought them here. It was probably one of the twins when they…came out here.” She stated carefully avoiding specific details. She didn’t know whose side the blue-eyed teen in front of her was on, but she didn’t want to give out any more information than necessary.

Danny was starting to panic. In between the gun pointed directly at his heart, _again,_ the sounds of battle raging not 100 feet away from them outside of the castle, and the currently disappeared version of himself who went out to fight it, he felt like his world was breaking. He barely registered his sister moving the ecto-weapon pointed at him to gesture, but he did hear the command for him to come with the rest of the group. He silently thanked whatever god had decided to give him just the slightest bit of luck convincing his sister he wasn’t a threat, before slowly walking towards her.

Jasmine quickly snapped the ecto-weapon up to full power, in intimidation, when she saw the obsidian haired teen walk towards her. “Nuh-uh. You are going to stay over there. I’m going to point this gun at your back while you walk forward, and direct you from behind. If you so much as sneeze threateningly, I’ll blast a hole in your skull. Got it?” She finished her declaration by staring the boy across from her directly in the eyes. She couldn’t suppress a shudder at the deep hurt reflected back at her through his gaze. What she was more concerned about though was the resonating pain that flowed through her own system. _Just who is this kid?_ She pondered before an especially loud explosion from outside made her jump. _Time to go!_ The eldest teen in the room snapped the weapon down a few notches in power and made a motion towards one of the exits to the room. “You first.”

Danny shoved away the growing hole in his chest made by the cold and rough treatment his sister was giving him. If he ever needed a familiar face to trust him, it was now, but at the moment, the only person he knew either hated his guts or didn’t trust him farther than her gun sights. Neither option was really soothing to Danny’s mind. He glumly turned towards the doorway Jazz had indicated with her weapon. He started off slowly, partially because he was sulking and partially because he didn’t want to give her an excuse to shot at him.

“Come on, move your ass! We have to get out-” Jasmine was cut off by a several loud crashes echoing throughout the house before Daniel landed just a few scant feet in front of her, having been thrown through a wall.

“What the baklava are you all still doing here? Didn’t I tell you to high-tail it like five minutes ago?” Daniel shook off some of the dust from his clothing, now subtly glowing and color reversed from the last time he was in the room.

“Sorry, we were just leaving!” Jasmine spat out hastily, pushing her younger siblings along in front of her, before noticing Danny standing still. “Get going! Do you want to die?” She was nearly out of patience at this point. What was this kid’s deal?

Danny was shocked into stillness by the sight of Daniel flying into the room. He had obviously transformed, but he looked nothing like either he or Vlad. Other than the clothing he was wearing swapping colors, and the ghostly aura obviously surrounding his person, he looked nearly exactly the same. _Well not exactly, his eyes are the same color red as Vlad’s, but why is his hair still black?_ Danny contemplated before realizing he was still standing at the edge of the room when they had a fight to escape. “Oh right, let’s get out of here.” He replied to Jazz absently dismissing the mystery that was his alternate self in favor of escaping the building. He followed his sister’s explicit and sometimes explicative filled instructions to the back of the mansion facing towards the southern side of the former Dairy King’s abode. It didn’t take long for him to identify the mode of transportation they were taking. _What in the-_ “hell _is_ that thing?” he asked voicing the tail end of his thoughts.

The Hercules Hover looked like a giant beetle made of bright white metal and silvery chrome and dark gray steel. It even had something that looked like pincers on the front.

“Do you like it? It’s a scaled up model of a Hercules Beetle, complete with energy scattering ecto-skeleton and strength built up to the car equivalent in size.” Nick gushed from behind Danny.

“Oook, that was the nerdiest thing I’ve ever heard come out of a kid your age’s mouth.” The time traveling teen responded.

“Psh, the ecto-skeleton isn’t nearly as cool as the heat seeking weapons or the hydraulic system that runs it.” Nate stated with a huff before continuing, “and it especially isn’t as cool as multi-person motion compensating targeting system, complete with multi-scopes and several scanning modes for optimum dam-” He’s technological speech was cut short when a loud explosion sounded from the front of castle.

“Never mind that the both of you, just get inside.” Jasmine walked from behind the teen she was basically holding hostage to open the side of the vehicle. With a whoosh and a small puff of steam, the side of the craft opened up to reveal the insides before she climbed inside. The elder teen calculated the odds of the battle raging out front from the sounds echoing back towards them. _Not good, sounds like Daniel’s having trouble keeping them all occupied. We need to get airborne before they manage to get past him and back here._ She watched as her brothers climbed in first, and was just about to motion to Danny to get in next when a swirling mist of red gathered in the cabin.

“Alright, let’s get out of here. I’ve got a duplicate keeping them busy out front, so if we leave south-west of here we’ll be able to escape with cover for the first hundred miles or so.” The ghost powered teen began pressing buttons to start up the machine before he noticed Danny standing a few feet from the vehicle. With a start and a set of narrowed eyes, he turned to face his older sister preparing to pilot them out of there next to him in the cockpit. “What in Hades is that waste of carbon atoms doing out here? You should’ve-”

“He’s coming with us.” Jasmine stated calmly, already nearly done with the start up sequence for the Hercules Hover. She wasn’t about to fight with him about this when they were in so much danger. _He’d better just get over it, because Danny **is** coming with us._

“No hold on, could I ask you something?” He didn’t wait for her to answer, instead plowing right into answering his own question. “Did you leave the rest of your frontal lobe in Camp, because you know, I was just wondering if I could attribute your sudden loss of IQ points on something other than your blasted empathy.”

“Shut up Daniel. Fly home if you don’t want to look at him on the trip, but he’s coming.” At this point Jasmine was so upset, she didn’t care what Danny overheard. She wasn’t arguing with her bull-headed younger brother about it anymore.

Before Daniel could retort a resounding boom echoed from the front of the grounds. A bright collection of red rushed into the cabin and towards him before absorbed into his being. His eyes flashed a darker red for an instant, before he gasped and reached from the controls. “We have _got_ to get out of here. You’re not going to-” Another large explosion cut off the rest of his sentence, and the oddly shaped craft shook on the ground as the remnants of the building behind them imploded.

The blast threw Danny against the still open side of the Hover knocking him nearly senseless. He groaned when he felt the vehicle he was leaning against move away and barely caught himself before he hit the ground. The sight that greeted him when the battered teen pried his eyes open was not a comforting one.

The mansion had caved in on itself, and plowing through the rubble were the troops of the GSU armed with various weapons and flanked and backed up by an assortment of assault vehicles including a few tanks. They fired a few shots, purposely aimed poorly, just to watch their cornered quarry dance.

Danny jumped to his feet to avoid the first of the ecto-weapon’s blasts. He managed to dodge the first several attacks, before realizing they were just playing with him. _I’m dead._ He thought before settling into a shaky fighting stance. Danny was more than outnumbered; he was out gunned, and had no way to escape. Just as he was about to transform and face the inevitable, a strong dark green blast carved a path in between the advancing troops and his person.

In the hovercraft above the ensuing battle Jasmine had just strapped herself into the pilot seat, after making sure the twins were buckled first. They’d had more than one experience with the cabin suddenly and explosively opening, so they all strapped in now-a-days. She was just about to demand Daniel go down and pick up the other teen, when he had suddenly jumped from the craft, phasing through the ecto-skeleton. She wasn’t sure what was going through his mind anymore. One minute her younger brother was insisting they leave the other boy to his fate, and the next he was jumping back into the fray, willing to protect him. _If for five seconds you could make sense…_

Truthfully, it was watching the other boy get fired upon, even if purposefully inaccurately, that had finally convinced Daniel to help. _No way would they fire on one of their own like that. Their weapons are too dangerous._ So, with barely a word to his sister back in the Hercules Hover, he’d jumped out of the craft and dived back towards the troops below. A carefully aimed blast cut the troops off from his target. The currently in ghost form youth maneuvered to a stop just in front of the designer clad kid in trouble. “Looks like you could use some help.” He said with the most apologetic voice he could muster under the circumstances.

“Could I ever. Do you think you could fly us out of here or something? I’d like to avoid ending up like the castle behind us.” Danny lifted up a hand towards the floating teen above him just as the fires from the ecto-attack died down. He felt his stomach drop as he was pulled into the air, and zipped towards the beetle shaped hovercraft. A few seconds later, he was dropped unceremoniously onto the cabin floor.

“Alright now let’s get out of here!” Daniel settled into the co-pilot seat next to his older sister and pointed towards the south-west. He began starting up some of the defense systems; there was no way they were getting out of there without a fight anymore.

“No problem.” Jasmine quickly agreed, before ‘punching it’. The hybrid bug-plane shot forward like a race horse out of the gate, zooming away from the quickly receding sounds of battle below. Just as they passed the edge of the forest surrounding the destroyed castle, the tanks behind them opened fire. With a few moves that looked like it came from an action movie, she quickly maneuvered them around the deadly weapon’s fire with ease.

The sounds of the blasts and the explosions of bright green grew softer and farther apart. Despite its nearly comical appearance the hovercraft was capable of moving well over 300 miles an hour.

Jasmine relaxed her grip slightly on the steering wheel of the flying beetle. The sounds of exploding ecto-weapon shells were miles behind them, far enough in the distance that she could calm down some.

Daniel narrowed his eyes and checked a few more scanning settings on the Hercules. _There’s just no way it’s that easy._ On the final channel he flipped to, he was rewarded with two flashing blips speeding towards their position. _I hate it when I’m right._ “Don’t let up Jasmine, we’ve got two boogies coming in hot.” With that, he flipped over the display onto the holographic read out floating in front of the windows in the beetle head shaped cockpit of the Hover.

“What are they?” The crimson locked teen asked punching a few buttons on the control console to narrow down the search area to just the planes coming towards their position.

“At this speed? I’d say fighter jets.” Daniel unbuckled himself and jumped towards the midsection of the craft. He’d likely need to intercept them himself; the Hover didn’t have the maneuverability to out-fly a couple of government issued jets.

“Oh great, because you know that’s just what we need, jets crawling up our six.” Jasmine huffed and started overriding the maximum velocity conditions on the craft, wanting to squeeze out all of the extra speed she could from the machine. She frowned when the jets over took the Hover’s position and banked back around obviously wanting an easy shot at the sides of the machine. “Daniel…”

“Yeah I’m on it.” He said before transforming and phasing out of the middle of the craft. He settled onto the nose of the Hover before creating a strong pink shield around the outside of the craft to block the incoming gun fire.

The planes strafed the outside of their target, firing large caliber rounds that were easily absorbed by half-ghost creating the ecto-shield. Even though their bullets were coated in ecto-uranium, like all of their equipment, and so especially effective against ghosts, hybrids were much more powerful than average, leaving the majority of their weapons ineffective. “Home base this is Flyer K, requesting approval to use heavy artillery.” The squadron leader sent back to their base in Amity. She spotted the rest of their group coming in from behind, slowed down by helping move supplies and ground troops back into the large air carrier. _Should be here soon._

“Flyer K, this is home base, permission granted. Blast those mutant bastards out of the sky.”

The squadron leader smirked into her O2 mask before replying, “Roger that home base. Let’s see those freaks avoid these.” She flipped up the missile firing part of her weapons system with a nearly soundless click. The weapon’s display changed from the small caliber rounds and weapons to the serious ecto-energy seeking energy and ecto-signature specific missiles and attacks. She picked out a pair of her favorite missiles, _the afterlife ender_ , and prepared to fire them while flagging her flying partner to do the same. Simultaneously, they sent off two pairs of missiles meant for the speeding bug-like craft now a few hundred yards in front of them.

“Daniel, we’ve got missiles baring down on us. You think your shield will hold?” Jasmine began steering the Hover in an erratic pattern trying to throw off the systems of the missiles.

The half-ghost teen sitting on the nose of the Hover narrowed his eyes as the missiles sped towards their position. “That’s a negative ghost rider. I’m going to have to make a copy to take care of it; I can’t drop the shield around the Hover, it would be too dangerous.” Daniel closed his eyes and concentrated. It was a drain on his powers to make a duplicate while holding the shield, _after_ already having fought off the GSU troops earlier, but he didn’t have a choice at the moment. He grimaced when he felt his core ache in the distinctive way that signaled him running out of power. _Not yet…_ With a deep breath, he forced the copy into existence and sent it outside of the shield to take care of the missiles.

The shield around the Hover flickered to bright green for a few seconds before changing back to a much softer nearly pastel colored pink as opposed to the deep nearly cherry pink from before.

“Hey, are you-” Jasmine started only to be cut off by her younger brother.

“I’m fine; we just need to end this fight quickly. If not, we’ll be in trouble.” He responded through grit teeth, pushing more energy into the cracking failing shield. It solidified under his efforts and he opened his eyes to watch the copy take off to intercept the missiles.

Danny was racked with indecision. Now would be a great time to transform and help out before they were all blasted into bloody chunks. On the other hand, he didn’t want to reveal he had ghost powers, in his recent experiences no time was a good time to reveal that, and with them already so suspicious they were contemplating leaving him to the GSU, he didn’t want to give them any excuse to do so. _Plus I’m pretty sure just showing up with ghost powers when they think I’m a regular kid will get me at least tied down to a chair with a gun pointed at me._ He mentally griped, feeling like a fish out of water sitting in the cabin instead of acting heroic.

The duplicate carefully flew between the first pair of missiles redirecting them back onto its tail instead of the Hover. It dodged around the second pair, making sure they were tailing as well before heading back towards the re-grouping squadron of fighter jets.

They were back in formation, all six of them, ready to deliver some punishing blows to the ghost hybrid boldly flying directly into their group.  The leader radioed the rest of them to ready their large caliber bullets, wanting to rip the ghost in front of them into bloody chunks. To their surprise, the ghost didn’t even slow when they began pelting it with projectiles; it only created a shield, and continued flying right at them.

It sped towards the rightmost section of the formation, missiles still tailing and quickly closing the gap. The duplicate solidified the shield to full power, and poured on the speed. It zeroed in on the nose of the plane on the very right of the squadron, moving too fast for the pilot to avoid the collision course. The still shielded clone appeared out of the opposite side of the gutted split in half wreckage, just as the first of the missiles slammed into the debris.

Fire billowed out in all directions, causing the remaining planes to try and dodge around the raining fire filled destruction all around them. A large chunk of twisted and melting melted rammed into the wing of one of the fleeing planes, the one closest to the plane hit by the combination of the duplicate and the exploding missiles. It spun out of control, then caught fire, its engines exploding before the pilot could eject. The remaining four planes split off into groups of two, each flanking a side of the dying inferno in the sky.

Suddenly, out of the center of the blast, the duplicate appeared, with two of the missiles still hot on its trail. The energy clone shot diagonally away from the last of the falling wrecked plane, nearly straight down. It charged a pinkish blast in its hands, preparing to fire. Right when the attack was basketball sized, the duplicate flipped in mid-air, changing its orientation from head down to head up. It fired the blast just as it shot up and the missiles rapidly drew nearer. It transformed right after changing direction and using the momentum from its formerly powered flight to carry it away from the certain denotation of the ecto-energy seeking missiles.

Just as with Danny, the missiles followed past the energy clone in human form and straight into the light pink colored ecto-energy attack, igniting on contact. The blast rippled the air around it, creating distinctive concentric rings in the clouds around the area in the sky.

It flipped a few times head over heel, before regaining control over its flight after transforming back into ghost form. The duplicate used its position under the group of planes closest to it to its advantage, surging upwards into the wing of the closest plane. The wing rapidly sheared off, shredding under the combined assault of the stresses of flight and the energy clone plowing into it. It grasped the stub of the broken wing and twirled the plane, flinging it into the machine’s closest neighbor.

The combined flaming twisted metal ball, that at one time had been two planes, plummeted towards the earth’s surface, leaving sky choking smoke filled hole in the ground.  

The energy clone stopped to admire its handiwork before looking around for the two remaining pilots. It suppressed a gasp as it located the planes flanking either side of it, guns primed and ready to riddle it with bullets. Unexpectedly, a nearly manic looking grin broke out across its face. “You’re never going to get a clearer shot.” It said while rapidly switching its eyes from the plane to its left to its right and back again. It held out its arms wide, leaving its torso very open.

“Die ghost scum.” The squadron leader spoke hitting the button for her machine gun.

The other pilot followed suit, and before long, there was a stream of bullets shooting towards the clone. He gasped when the hail of bullets disappeared into a cloud of red smoke. _Just where did-_ He thought before an equally large cloud of red haze gathered around the outside of his cockpit.

“Here I am.” The cloud drawled while gathering into a humanoid shape. The duplicate sent an energy clothed fist through the reinforced glass of the cockpit window, before grasping the pilot inside the jet and flinging him out through the glass and back towards the rear of the jet, where he quickly caught fire before falling out of sight. It pressed down on the controls for the plane; rocketing the jet towards its compatriot at full speed.

 _Oh shit._ She thought before slamming down on the button for the eject. She shot up and away from her plane just as the other jet barreled into hers. The flames from the resulting explosion ripped her parachute like tissue paper, and she fell back through the licking burning inferno of her jet, disappearing from sight.

The energy clone sighed into the smoky sky darkened by its destructive attacks before dissolving back into red energy.

 

* * *

          

Daniel sighed tiredly from the front seat next to Jasmine. He’d dropped the shield and phased back into the co-pilot’s seat seconds after his energy clone dissipated back into pure spectral energy. _Well my powers are baked for the next few hours._ “Well Danny, there’s a few things you need to know, since you are stuck with us for awhile. We aren’t exactly a normal family. Those guys shooting at us back there? They’re called the GSU, and they want to mount my family’s head on a pike like a medieval decoration. Also, we can’t tell you where we are going, because frankly I don’t trust you, and every second outside of the homemade safe zone is risking our very lives. They want us dead because, we’re part ghost, which, by the by, is why I can fly and bat missiles out of the air if you were wondering.” He turned around; wanting to see the shock filled gapping expression he was sure the other teen was making. When he was met with a blank stare, Daniel couldn’t help but raise an inquisitive brow.

“What?” Danny started upon seeing the look on the other boy’s face. “I don’t know what state I’m in, I’m missing a week of time from my life, the government was just trying to kill me, I’m being held hostage flying to God knows where, and you think the fact you have superpowers is the most concerning thing to me right now?”

“Good point.” Daniel settled deeper into the seat before starting the monologue back up, “In any case, once we are sure you aren’t working for the guys who are trying to kill us, which I _still_ not all the convinced of, we’ll fly you to the nearest city and drop you off. The last thing we need is another mouth to feed anyway.”  

“How in the world did they find us?” Jasmine grumbled, changing subjects, finally setting the Hercules Hover into auto-pilot mode. If would be a few hours more until they got back to Camp, even flying at maximum velocity, and there was no way she was holding the steering wheel the whole rest of the way.

Daniel visibly sagged into the co-pilot seat, more tired than ever now that they were no longer in danger. “It might have been me. I mean I was only in ghost form for a few seconds to teleport, but I had to take the bracelet off to do it, and they can track me with it off. Speaking of, hand back my bracelet you little louts.”

Nick and Nate shared a look before facing back around to look at their older brother. “Uh what do you mean?” They asked at once.

“Oh please, as if you being nervous wasn’t obvious, the device you were trying to pilfer is right here.” He stopped to dangle the completely black chain over his shoulder where his brothers could see it. “What you currently have, in your _pocket_ Nick, is my bracelet. If you notice, it’s black _and_ silver. Good try, but you need to take some more dots in stealth and street smarts.” Daniel chuckled before shoving the device back into his front pants pocket. “Now hand it over thing one and two.”

The two of them grimaced before tossing the bracelet over the top of the co-pilot chair. “You’re no fun Daniel.” They decided at the same time, before settling back into their chairs on the opposite side from Danny.

“Well I don’t think so.” Jasmine decided, picking up the conversation where Daniel had left off before talking about the bracelet. “I mean if they picked you up that quickly, how do you know it wasn’t the twins they found first? I mean they flew out there, so their signal was stronger for much longer. Hey! That reminds me, how exactly _did_ you two fly out there? Neither of you have access to enough energy to transform, so how did you-…” Jasmine trailed off and fiddled with the cloaking device on the Hercules some more, changing it in response to the different type of radar their pursuers were using.

“Does it matter really? I mean we all got _out_ ok so-”

“Sure if you think destroying a supply cache and nearly being blasted out of the sky is ok. Oh, and father’s going to turn me inside out for this mess. You two are dead meat anyway, I’ll just tell one of the parental units to clamp your suppressant levels tighter.” Daniel resisted the urge to smirk, knowing threatening to have the restraints increased would get them to talk. To his surprise neither of them offered up any further information, so with a shrug he dismissed the conversation onto the list of things to worry about once they got back to Camp. He glanced down at his own bare wrist and frowned. Even though he barely had any spectral energy at the moment, and what energy he had, he was consciously suppressing, the ghost powered teen knew he had to place the bracelet back on eventually. With a purely internal groan, Daniel wrapped the bracelet back around his form and snapped it in place with a click. A few seconds later, he felt it come fully online, and the rest of his powers slip out of his grasp. He leaned his head against the back of the seat, enjoying the sudden silence in the cabin.

“So whose idea was this…weird beetle thing?” Danny asked breaking what had been a comfortable lull in conversation. He had to admit, it was cooler than he first thought, what with the laser defense system and the outer shielding that could absorb missile damage through some sciencey energy thing, the twins had over-enthusiastically explained, but it _still_ looked like a giant bug.

“It was mine.” The twins answered at the same time.

“Nuh-uh! I thought of it first!” Nate protested.

“No way, you didn’t even like entomology until I started studying it! You’re just a bandwagoner.” Nick objected back.

“Ento-what?” Danny tried to break up the ensuing argument.

“If you two recall, neither of you started studying entomology until after Jasmine said you could use it to identify the age of corpses, which, by the way, was _after_ she suggested using an insect or arachnid as a model to make a tank-like flying vehicle. So _she_ thought of it.” Daniel stopped and looked over at the interestingly similar looking to him teen opposite Nick. “Ignore them, they always fight like this.” He supplied. “So what’s your last name? You never did say.” Daniel leaned back into his seat, resisting the urge to sleep after the dog-fight with the jets earlier. He needed to stay alert-more of them could be back at any time.

“Oh er…Moley.” _I’m back to this again already?_

“Moley huh? That’s an awful alias. If you are going to lie to me about your last name you could at least pick something good, like Phoenix.”

“Or Gryphon.” Nate added from his position opposite Danny.

“No wait! My name is now Nickolas Cthulhu.”

Daniel chuckled from the front of the cabin. “Fantastic, where’s your tentacles elder god?”

“Foolish mortal! If I were to reveal my true form, it would splatter your consciousness among the cosmos.” Nick responded with exceptional bravado.

At that, the whole group, excluding Danny, broke out into a fit of giggles. “Um…who?” _I hate sounding stupider than 10 year olds._ He thought cursing his serious lack of book knowledge.

“You know, Call of Cthulhu.” Daniel supplied helpfully turning to face the group’s clueless member from the front seat. Upon seeing a blank state met his information he clarified further. “H.P Lovecraft, the…author. Do you even read man?”

“I read! I mean, not much outside of school assignments, usually just comic books.” Danny ended the sentence mostly in a mumble, realizing he didn’t read on the regular because of all of the ghost fighting, and certainly nothing classical in nature.

“Oh. Well, um, I a little bit of a literature lover-”

“And by that he means he’d marry a library if it were legal.” Jasmine interrupted.

“Would not! Though I might’ve married one of the Bronte sisters if it were possible.”

“I can’t believe you like the romantic drivel.” Nate and Nick complained at once.

“If you ask me, I much prefer Hemmingway.” Nickolas added.

“Or Tim O’Brien, can’t beat war stories.” Nate countered.

“Yeah and Tim O’ Brien and Hemmingway are fantastic marriage material.” Daniel’s tone managed to carry both sarcasm and mirth. He listened to his younger brothers’ sputter from the back of the Hover, a victorious smile firmly planted on his face.

“Uh so, what are you guys’ last names?” The conversation was veering into serious nerd-level territory, and unless Danny wanted more of his lack of book knowledge revealed, he needed to change the subject.

Jasmine scoffed and turned around towards the edge of her seat to look back at Danny. “How about we’ll tell you if you tell us your real one?”

“Um…I did already?” Even to Danny’s ears it sounded unsure and meek. _Yeah great way to convince them you’re telling the truth._ He crossed his arms and sent a light glare towards his sister-who-wasn’t. There was no way he was telling anyone _anything_ about his actual life until he knew more about the crazy world he found himself in.

“Yeah right. No wait didn’t we tell you? Our last name is Moley too. Just what are the odds?” Daniel mocked while he unbuckled himself and headed for the back of the Hover.

“Daniel, quit being so sarcastic!” Jasmine frowned at him from his position standing near the weapon’s case in the back. She watched him fiddle with a couple weapons, carefully, _unconsciously,_ she realized, eying the other male teen. _He’s nervous._ She didn’t blame him honestly. _This kid shows up out of nowhere, and knows our dad’s name, and then the GSU shows up, but he can’t remember anything for a week, and won’t tell us anything about him. Yeah, I’m nervous too Daniel._ She remembered before honing in on one of Danny’s admissions. “How do you know Vlad Masters anyway?” And he was going to explain that one, even if he wouldn’t tell them anything else.

“Like I said, he’s an old family friend.” Between the other boy fiddling with the weapons in the back and his sister needling him for answers in the front, Danny was beginning to feel like a caged animal.

“Listen, if you’re going to lie to us about your last name, you could at least be honest about that. Not many people would call him a family friend anymore. In fact, the list of people includes our mom, and Jack Fenton, and well he depends on the mood and the level of crazy.”

Danny was about to say something about calling his dad crazy, when he remembered he knew nothing about anything going on at the moment. So instead, he settled for a slightly stronger glare and a stonewalled face.

Jasmine rolled her eyes and leaned back into her seat. “Ok, don’t tell us, but until you do, _we_ aren’t letting you out of Camp when we arrive.” She sighed shakily, hoping they weren’t bringing a Trojan horse back into their version of “Troy”. There was really nothing for it though. They couldn’t let him go, he was too dangerous, knew too much already, but… _Bringing him with us has its own set of risks. I mean, we already had him scanned a million different ways for bugs or transmitters, but that doesn’t mean he can’t contact them some other way, and Camp is the only safe place left._ Still, something stronger than her fear was pulling at her to let him stay, and it was something she couldn’t explain. The crimson haired girl glanced at the map tracking their position. _Only an hour and a half left._ They were close, and she was determined to get some info out of him before then. “Danny,” she sighed out before standing from her seat at the front of the Hover to walk back towards him.

Danny had receded back into himself, wanting to think over some of the reams of information he’d learned over the past 36 hours or so. _It doesn’t make any sense._ That was the only conclusion he’d been able to reach over the last few minutes, and it seemed to encompass everything about his last day and a half. Amity Park didn’t make any sense. The GSU didn’t make any sense. Vlad’s burnt out mansion didn’t make any sense. The kit and caboodle of the giant flying bug he was inside didn’t make any sense. If he was honest with himself, nothing had made sense _since_ he had taken Clockwork’s Medallion and wished the bonds of time away. _And what was with Jazz calling dad crazy? Or saying he had sent me after them? Admittedly, she thought I was a ghost at the time, but that doesn’t actually make it make…any more sense._ Danny resisted the urge to massage the headache forming behind his eyes away. All the thinking in the world wasn’t going to make this any better. _I have to ask the only person with answers, which means I need to avoid being thrown off this tub by its other worried passengers._ He decided, before suddenly turning to face his sister who wasn’t. “What’s Camp?” The ghost powered teen asked, face a picture of calm attentiveness.

Jasmine was taken aback by the tenor of the question. She had been expecting him to ask _where_ they were going, or perhaps how _they_ knew Vlad Masters, but instead…She tilted her head as she processed through the way to answer the question. She almost jumped when Daniel answered for her.

“Camp is a safe haven, and no we aren’t telling you where it is exactly. It’s the one place on the planet where we can’t be found by the GSU, though of course I’m not going to tell you why either. _That_ should answer any and all questions you have about the place, at least any we are willing to answer.” Daniel leaned against the rounded wall closest to the guns’ rack and eyed Danny suspiciously.

Danny groaned and let his head rest against the back of his seat. It was tired of dealing with people so unwilling to answer anything, but at this point he could understand some of their behavior. More annoyingly, he was getting a karmic taste of his own uncooperative medicine. “If I tell you how I know Vlad, will you at least tell me your last names?” Danny offered. It wasn’t as if he needed them to tell him, he knew the answer already. It was completely obvious. On the other hand, he needed them to trust him, and confiding in him was a good way to get that to happen.

Jasmine frowned from her seat next to their tag-a-long. It seemed like a genuine offer, and a reasonable trade. Chances were if Vlad was really an old family friend like the teenager next to her claimed, then telling him their last names wouldn’t do any damage. And since he had offered his information first, there was really nothing to lose. _If he’s lying, I’ll know about it before we tell him anything._ With that thought, she locked eyes with her brother at the back of the Hover. For a second she thought he wouldn’t agree, but she plunged ahead when she saw him shrug his shoulders. “Alright, so how do you know him?” Jasmine questioned again, a little more gently than the first time.

“I know I already said he’s an old family friend, um, but I didn’t say who knows him. It’s my mom actually. She knew him in college.” _I hope this works._ “My mom’s name is Harriet Chin, she used to be friends with Vlad Masters, and I think she was the roommate of a woman called Maddie, er, she was never really clear on her last name. I guess she thought it was obvious or something.” Danny muttered through the last of the sentence and closed his eyes. He really didn’t want to deal with the fallout if they didn’t believe him this time.

“Harriet Chin? She was my mother’s roommate in college, except…” Jasmine narrowed her eyes at the boy next to her, looking him over. “You don’t look much like her. I mean mom said she was Asian, and to be honest, you look whiter than snow.”

“Yeah well, she’s my step-mother.” _I’ve developed a lot of step-parents on this little trip._ Danny mused before continuing, “And she’s dead.” _And a whole bunch of dead ones too. What? This is like the third parent I’ve killed off, as long as I don’t count the imaginary biological mom I killed to get related to Ms. Chin._ Danny opened his eyes and stared as imploringly as he could manage at the girl sitting next to him. If he could communicate a single thought with his eyes alone, it’d be “please believe me.”

Jasmine was about to comment on how convenient it was for his step-mom to be dead as a door nail, when the look on his face froze her lips mid-word. There was enough raw pain on the other side of his stare to give her pause. At the very least, he was really hurt about something, and as far as she could tell, it wasn’t out of the question for it to be about his “dead” step-mom. She passed an unsure look to her brother behind Danny, wanting his unspoken second opinion about it. Even if she’d never admit it out loud, he had an almost prenatal sixth sense about people and their trustworthiness, and she trusted him to decide whether someone was safe to trust or not. _Honestly, the only one better at it is dad._

Daniel couldn’t see the pained desperate look on their “house guest’s” face, but the emotions were coming off him in waves. The dark-haired teen wasn’t a trusting person by nature, at least not anymore, but his most basic instincts were screaming at him to have faith with a person he’d never laid eyes on before in his life. Even if he didn’t trust him with everything, his gut instinct had been demanding he let him in since he’d seen him back at the cache in Wisconsin, and it was driving him nuts. There was nothing about the other boy that lent itself to greater trust, and if he was honest with himself, there was every reason to not believe him. Everything from the story of his arrival at the cache, to his step-mom tale just a few seconds ago ranged from flimsy to absurd, yet here he was, fighting with logic against every base impulse. _What is it about you that drives my trust so deeply?_ Daniel pondered before catching his sister’s eye on the other side of the teen they were practically interrogating. He saw the light of uncertainty reflected in her eyes, before deciding to give into the irrational, but strong, impulse to trust the boy in front of him implicitly. “Ok. So you’re step-mom is, forgive me, _was_ Harriet Chin, who was a good friend of my mother, and at the very least an acquaintance of my father.” He quirked his mouth into a semi-balance of a worried thin line before continuing past his reticence, “If you haven’t guessed by now, my last name is ‘Masters’, and so is everyone else aboard this flying bug. That is except you.”

Danny had been excepting him to confirm his- what was it at this point? Worse nightmare or saving grace?- but the effect was greater than he’d thought. Instead of the vague tingle of surprise and the uneasy sensation of _wrong, wrong, wrong_ , he’d expected, he was awash in an intense jolt of near painful vertigo. It was like the whole world had decided to turn upside-down but, regretfully, forgotten to inform him about it or even warn him in advance. Even if he could go through the mental gymnastics necessary to logic away his sister’s presence, the boy behind him turned the best of his rationalizations about how “not different” this world from his own into laser hole ridden tissue paper whose ashes had been rocketed into space. And it wasn’t as if he hadn’t known any of this before he heard it out loud, but there was a difference between just thinking about it, and having someone basically tell you the family you know and love doesn’t exist. Danny managed to avoid the thought of curling up into a ball and just giving in for a few hours until he could summon up some more emotional energy. It wouldn’t really help in this situation, and if anything, he needed to be fully alert from now on. There was no way to know how much this…reality differed from his own. _Hell there’s no way of knowing whether Vlad will even be happy, or even **ok** seeing me. If he isn’t, it’ll just be a matter of time before the GSU find me, and then it’s bye bye Danny._ He took a deep shuddering breath and settled his dismay and discomfort to the back of his mind.

“Hey guys, I think we are getting close. Well the map is beeping more, so I think that means we’re getting close.” Nate offered from his stolen seat in the pilot side of the cockpit.

“Yeah we’d know for sure if you guys ever let us touch anything up here, like ever.” Nick added before leaning over his twin’s shoulder to stare at the flashing map more intently.

Jasmine looked over at the shell-shocked teen in front of her a moment longer before heading back to the front of the Hover. There were a multitude of things to attribute his reaction to. Everything from relief of deep worry and stress to a high level of shock about the content of the revelation was up for grabs emotionally. So instead of questioning the raven-haired teen who looked so much like her brother, but not that it scared her, she decided to take a look at the radar. Sure enough, the twins were right. They were only a few minutes away from the Rockies, and from there it’d only be a five or six minute flight to the outer reaches of Camp. She melded into the pilot seat with a sigh, before buckling herself in. “Alright everyone, strap back into a seat, we’re pretty close now. It’ll be just a few minutes longer before we reach the mountains, and then after that, Danny,” she added just to make it known she was mentioning this just for him, “we’ll be back in Camp airspace.”

“So if you have any GSU transmitters, don’t expect them to work or anything.” Daniel suggested brushing past Danny to get back to the co-pilot seat at the front of the Hover.

“Yeah never dream of communicating with the people who were shooting at me a few hours ago.” He sniped back with a roll of his eyes. _God is this guy paranoid._ He mentally added before continuing, “And good thing we’re about to land too, ‘cause I was about to ask ‘are we there yet?’ and God knows how annoying that question is.” Danny joked before clicking his seat belt back into place. He watched as the older siblings cajoled the twins into complying with the barest of safety measures, before returning to their own seats at the front of the cabin. If there was ever a time he’d wished for a window seat, this was it. Other than knowing they were probably going south-west, because Daniel had mentioned it earlier, and being relatively sure they were in the Rockies, because what other mountains were there to the west, he was lost as a lab rat in a maze. Just as he felt the flying bug dip down out of the sky, a cool tingle raced up his spine. “What wa-” He heard the older siblings from the front of the cabin let out a whoosh of air.

 “Well Danny, welcome to Camp airspace. We’ll be setting down in about five minutes, and you better bet our parents are going to have a lot to talk about with you. So you better have more answers for them than you did for us.” Jasmine warned before pressing forward on the controls for the Hercules Hover.

_Yeah, I hope so too._

**…then you might have stepped into your personal Oz.**


	12. If You’re Expecting the Wicked Witch…

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Explanations, deadly politics, and a revelation.

Danny felt the Hover dip as it descended through the fairly dense cloud cover wreathing the area of the mountains. The ride down was surprisingly smooth, the beetle-like contraption gliding down the last few hundred feet to the valley below. He realized with a lurch of his stomach that the butterfly feeling wasn’t caused by the drop in altitude, but the growing pit of anxiety and fear. How Vlad and Maddie would react, he didn’t know, and that reason alone was enough to send him into a small panic attack. If they didn’t accept him, help him, or at least point him in the right direction, Danny was as good as dead. There was no way he could avoid the GSU on his own, and so the out of sorts time traveler was stuck hoping he could convince Vlad help him out… _again_. _Oh great, I’m being forced to beg my arch-enemy for help. Life’s fantastic._ Honestly, his life hadn’t been peachy keen since he started this wild time adventure, and he had a feeling it wouldn’t be until after the rollercoaster ended.

There was a soft thump as the vehicle touched down on the grass clothed earth; settling its moors into the damp soil. Two clicks issued from the front of the machine, the final signals to disembark. “Well we’re here. Danny,” Jasmine slid smoothly from her seat inside the head of the mechanized beetle, “stay inside for a few minutes while we explain some things to our parents. You two,” her tone hardened into a harsh whisper, “get outside right now. You’d better expect to be grounded until you’re thirty for this mess.” The red-haired girl pointed a finger out the hissing opening on the side of the Hover, silently willing her younger brothers to obey without protest. After a moment to ensure they did as instructed, Jasmine turned around to face Daniel still lounging in the co-pilot’s seat. “Come on, I know you’re awake. You can’t avoid facing damnation forever.”

“Just five more minutes.” He looked over at his sister imploringly, “just five more minutes of freedom. I’ll be out soon.” Daniel melded back into the co-pilot seat with a groan, the sounds of a good dressing down already filtering into the cabin from outside.

Jasmine barely held back a wince at the fever-pitch the yelling had taken on. It was, to her surprise and relief in a feminine tone, which assured her of her father’s continued ignorance, at least for the moment. Scrubbing her hands over the goose bumps forming on her arms in the cool mountain air, she stole off of the Hover without a single glance back.

Soft scuffing echoed softly inside the quiet space of the cabin, broken only by the slight whooshing noise of deep calming breaths coming from the front of the scaled-up beetle.

Danny started when he heard another barrage of angry screams added to the scuffing he was making on the Hover floor. He didn’t have to look to know the voice’s owner, recognizing it from years of heavy frowns, and recently, frustrated talks in exasperated tones. His mother wasn’t happy in the least. This was why he was doodling inside the Hover for longer than necessary. While there was no way to avoid the inevitable, he wanted her at least finished and calmed down from her first set of admonishments and worry before he added to it with his presence. He heard the co-pilot’s chair creak gently ahead of him and was reminded of his doppelganger’s presence. Pressed with the need to put as much distance between his alternate reality self and his person, Danny hopped up from his chair and made quick work of the distance to the exit.

“Stop.”

He registered the firm authority in the tone and had obeyed before he really recognized who the voice belonged to. “Um-”

“Stay here. I need to at least give my mother some warning before you just walk out there.” Daniel rocked up to full height from his seat and made for the exit, interspersing himself between it and a jumpy Danny. He stared down the other boy; more to scan over his appearance than to intimidate. A spark in his eyes gave away his true feelings despite his carefully drawn poker face. Confusion, that’s the closest word he’d use to describe his emotional state. Their similar, but different appearances were uncanny. _If I didn’t know any better-_ A loud masculine bellow cut off his thoughts. “Great, it sounds like a cluster-fudge out there. I’m probably doomed.” Daniel grumbled completely fatalistically.  A frown twitched its way to his lips before he locked eyes, _blue like mine but not,_ with the boy across from him. Another bellow broke him out of the staring trance, and with a final firm declaration to stay put, Daniel stepped out of the cabin and onto the dewy grass.

A cursory sweep of the standing arrangements told the story in body language. Jasmine stood by her mother, arms crossed against the chill as much as against visible signs of frustration. The twins shuffled their feet slowly in place next to each other, eyes downcast, face only slightly guilty in response to the furious scolding they were receiving. The person currently taking up the banner of reprimanding parent leaned over them, hands on his hips, face darkened from a combination of anger and the midday sun.

“And if you two even so much as _breathe_ like you’re thinking of leaving this place again without permission, I’ll phase your feet through concrete and short out your powers. You understand me?” Vlad scowled down at his youngest sons’ still downturned faces. He watched them squirm for a moment longer before dropping down to their level. “Boys,” he waited until they at looked over at him, “that was amazingly dangerous. What were you doing all the way out in Wisconsin anyway?”

“It doesn’t matter.” They whispered in an apologetic voice.

Vlad made a dismissive noise before continuing, “It most certainly does. What was worth risking capture by the GSU, sneaking off without any hope of reinforcements, and doing so knowing you’d get in trouble when you made it back anyway?”

“Hate to cut in,” Daniel said typical smirk firmly affixed to his lips, “but I can answer that.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled the onyx chain from its hiding place. “They were after this little trinket.” He tossed the slinky piece to his father a few paces away, leaning back against the picnic table from his place next to his older sister. “Good thing I found it first or-”

“No amount of schmoozing in the world is getting _you_ off the hook.” Vlad concluded turning the black bracelet over in his hands. “You were supposed to be watching them, but apparently something else was more important than keeping your younger brothers out of trouble and _alive._ ” He connected the chain end to end and tossed it a few times in his hand. “You two do know,” he started quickly shifting his attention to the younger two boys, “that this is an old model. It wouldn’t have gotten those bracelets off even if you had gotten a hold of it. That’s why it was safe to leave it at the cache, wouldn’t do anyone any good if discovered. Speaking of,” the older man’s sharp blue eyes switched their focus back to Daniel, “how were you all discovered? They still have their bracelet’s on, and your sister isn’t so spectrally inclined.”

Daniel shrugged off the implicit indictment. “It wasn’t me. I only had the suppressor off for a few moments to teleport, and then only after the GSU arrived.”

“Dad, they got there _way_ too fast.” Jasmine added, placing herself back in the conversation. “I had barely arrived just five minutes or so before Daniel showed up. After that, it was maybe another five minutes until the GSU arrived in force. The trip from Amity is like an hour and a half. We weren’t there long enough for them to have sensed us, sent out a group of soldiers and landed. I mean the twins only got there…”

“Like, I don’t know, maybe twenty minutes before that.” Nate raised one shoulder in a half gesture before continuing his staring contest with the grass.

“Right so, that was maybe forty minutes in total. So unless they’ve gotten faster, they already knew we were going to be there or something.” Jasmine tapped her lip and looked over at her suspiciously quiet mother, or where she last saw her. “Mom?” the eldest teen glanced around the clearing searching for her mother’s form.

A piercing scream came from the inside of the Hercules Hover followed by a quieter more masculine cry.

Danny stumbled out of the craft and onto the soggy dirt, disheveled and more than a little fear darkening his features. He swiftly got to his feet, wiping at the dirty mud smudges across his previously clean hoodie. “Hey wait a sec, just calm down.” He held his hands up in a placating manner, trying to calm the in turns angry and hysterical voice emanating from the inside of the machine. The grass squished underfoot as he backpedaled away out of the reach of a solid object chucked near where he had been standing.

Maddie strode out of the flying tank of a beetle, standing one hand akimbo the other pointing a menacing looking weapon at the terrifyingly familiar young face across from her. She sent a glance back to the rest of her family, wondering if they even knew who this young man was. She might not have seen him for over fifteen years, but she’d been too close with the odd young man to not recognize him, years intervening or not. “How did you get here?” She brandished her weapon directly at the boy’s chest, a thousand questions buzzing in her head. Most centered around his still youthful appearance. The only thing she could conclude was that he was a shape shifting ghost, and there was very little chance a ghost showing up with her children after being attacked by the GSU was some kind of cosmic coincidence. A sharp gasp caught her attention to her rear, and she felt her focus slip to the group behind her, looking over her shoulder for only a moment.

In a matter of seconds, he’d felt surprise, worry and determination echo through his being in overlapping turns. He was striding over to his wife hands twitching to intervene before the situation got even more out of hand. He wasn’t sure how or _why_ the young man standing askance from him had gotten here, but Vlad was sure he needed to stop his wife from blasting him into a crater in the ground. “Maddie, sweetie, can we talk before you put a hole through his chest?” He smoothly stepped in between the business end of the gun and the stunned looking young man behind him.

“Talk? We have a ghost sp-”

“We don’t know that.” Vlad solidly interrupted. He glanced over to Danny before turning his attention back to the woman in front of him.

“What other explanation is there for-for, _this?_ ” She gestured widely to Danny’s entire appearance. Maddie slung the gun onto her belt when Vlad took a few more steps forward, obviously uninterested in giving her a remotely clear shot.

“I’m not sure,” he held up a hand when she looked ready to argue, “but shooting him isn’t going to give us any answers. Just,” Vlad sighed before running his hands through his currently shoulder length hair, “let me talk to him alright? I promise there’s a good reason, a _logical_ explanation, for all of this. Just let me get it out of him before you try to blast him into a cinder.”

Maddie crossed her arms and looked around her husband at the boy currently trying his hardest not to draw more negative attention to himself. She liked his presence even less than the hair-raising stunts her children had pulled a few hours back, but she trusted Vlad to keep them safe. “Ok, but if he even twitches like he’s got a GSU communicator or something, I’m putting a slag filled out hole in his chest.” She stomped away from the two males, more worried than angry.

A few silent seconds passed between the two of them before Danny spoke up, confident now that everyone else was out of earshot. “Thanks so much for that, you don’t know how happy I am to see you.”

“Like I give a flying piece of flan about you being happy to see me.” Vlad hissed out before turning about to face Danny. He sent a fierce glare in the younger half-ghost’s direction before pointing to the inside of the Hover. “What are you doing here Danny?” It was more of an accusation than a question. It wasn’t that he wasn’t happy to learn he was alive and well, he’d examined some serious emotional demons to make that happen, it was that his presence made things more confusing once again.

Danny got the hint when Vlad stepped inside the metal beetle, joining him in a matter of seconds. At the moment he was as desperate for explanations as the older man likely was. “I don’t know. I was hoping you’d be able to tell me. What in the world is going on here?”

Vlad punched a couple buttons on the side of the Hover to close the side of the machine and activate the Hover’s shielding technology. Chances were, Danny wasn’t going to be talking unless he thought no one else would be listening in. “Sit down,” he said motioning to the chairs against one of the walls. “I-Danny,” Vlad cut himself off with a sigh. While he wanted to trust the young man sitting across from him, he had his family’s safety to consider above all else. It was possible this wasn’t even the same boy he remembered. “You have a lot of explaining to do. And no lying or leaving out details. I want the truth this time, all of it, or I’m letting Maddie use you as target practice.” He crossed his arms and waited.

“I-where do I start?” Danny complained more to himself than anything else. “Ok, the last thing I remember saying to you was that I was from the future, and showing you, this.” He paused to pull the item he’d come to curse with a vengeance out from under his shirt. “The next thing I know,” he continued without giving Vlad room to respond, “I’m waking up inside Amity Park, in the same park we’d been talking in, only a few feet away from the picnic tables, sprawled out on the grass. Everything from that moment until now has been an exercise in insanity!”

“Hold on-”

“Worse, I can’t find anyone I know, except for you, and these Guys in White rejects are trying to hunt me down, and doing a better job than-how do they even know half ghosts exist?” Danny cut off his comment about a detail of his life in favor of pressing for more information.

“That’s not important right now-”

“Not important!” Danny nearly jumped to his feet in frustration. _Not important my ass. Right because being hunted by people who know my secret is no big deal._

“Yes. What I need from you is information. If you’re from the future, then why are you so confused? Why can’t you find anyone else?” Vlad huffed at the boy tapping his feet against the floor.

“I-I don’t know. Something went wrong I think. It’s just you and my parents and-damn this is all so screwed up.”

“Ok, why don’t you tell me what’s different and we can work from there; because freaking out isn’t going to help.”

“I don’t know how much I can tell you. I mean I guess if I was going to get killed it would have happened already.”

Vlad declined to comment on the promise of death and instead pressed for more details, “just say something, because if I don’t get something soon, I’m kicking you out of Camp.” He watched as Danny’s attention jumped out of the self-loathing spiral and back to him. “You’re too much of a liability to keep around if you can’t tell me what’s going on.” _There, that ought to give him the kick in the pants needed to get talking._

 The ghost powered teen let out a shaky sigh. “Ok.” He decided that if Clockwork was going to take him out of the timeline, then he might as well go out trying to fix things. “I didn’t tell you my last name the last time we talked. What was that like fifteen years ago for you?” Danny asked with an amused quirk of the lips. “It was like a few minutes for me. Anyway,” he closed his eyes, not knowing how this information would go over. “My name is Fenton, Danny Fenton.” It took a significant amount of self control to avoid wincing in response to the muttered baked good curses coming from across from him. “But,” he quickly interrupted the string of creative curses, “don’t freak out or anything.” _Yeah that’s so reassuring._

A solid throbbing had replaced the slight twinge forming behind his eyes. _If I’d been worried about a headache before now…_ It wasn’t as if Danny didn’t present a problem originally, but at the moment, learning that Jack _Fenton_ of all people was his father wasn’t helping things. It also confirmed that the boy across from him was from a different future completely. “Let’s start with the simple stuff. Date of birth, hometown, that kind of thing, and if you tell me anything along the tune of ‘I can’t tell you.’-”

“No!” Danny said cutting him off. “I, ok, I was born in Amity Park, July 23, 1990. My parents are Maddie and Jack Fenton; my best friends are Sam Manson and Tucker Foley. I go to Casper High as a freshman, and am one of the least popular kids in existence. I have an older sister, Jazz Fenton, and every teacher likes her more than me.” He started a rapid run together once over of his life. “I got ghost powers a little before my freshman year started in an accident in my parents’ basement lab. I turned the ghost portal on with me inside. I decided to use my powers to defend my town from ghosts, and you and I are mortal enemies. You’re trying to kill my dad and marry my mom and you moved into my hometown to mess with me some more, and you have your flunkies screw around in my life and attack my school and I made a stupid mistake and I shouldn’t have taken this stupid fucking Medallion.” He took a deep breath to continue his rant and grabbed at the pocket watch hanging around his neck. “I came back into the past to keep us from being enemies but it’s all so screwed up now; I must have done something to really mess up the future because none of this is supposed to be happening. You’re just supposed to be a family friend or something, but I haven’t seen my dad or my best friends, and my mom’s married to _you_ and the kids out there-“He cut himself off with a low moan and set his head into his hands. Danny hadn’t meant to tell Vlad all of that; it just came out on its own. Once he started he couldn’t stop, and now he was left feeling like he’d said way too much.

Vlad was still trying to process all of the information Danny had unwillingly volunteered. From what he’d heard, the future Danny was from was nothing like the one in which he was currently living. _No wonder he’s so confused._ He concluded as the last of the quickly spoken information clicked into place. He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the back of the seat. _This presents an entirely new set of problems. He’s not even supposed to exist in this timeline. How is he staying attached to this reality? How am I supposed to send him ‘home’ to another **universe**? What happened so differently that our realities are so completely incompatible?_ His thoughts buzzed with these and dozens of other questions.  

“Well?!” Danny’s nerves were on end from the rambling monologue and Vlad had yet to respond.

“This is quite a bit of information to take in, so give me a moment. What you’re telling me is not only are you from the future, or I suppose it’s now ‘present’, but you you’re from an alternate envisioning, a-an alternate universe parallel to my own?”

“I guess?” What he said sounded right, even if more complicated than he’d explained. It made sense at least.

“And in this alternate universe, you’re Jack Fenton and Maddie’s son, and Amity Park isn’t a ghost hunter strong hold. In fact, they need help from a teenager to solve their ghost problem.” That last part had him skeptical. Ever since the GSU had gotten their new commander, they’d been a paragon of ghost hunting; a particularly well oiled machine of unstoppable spectral destruction.

“Yeah, my parents suck at ghost hunting.” Danny admitted with a nervous smile.

_Interesting._ “So what are you doing here?” It was an approximation of the questions he really wanted to ask.

“Oh, well I ran into your…kids,” _will never stop being an awkward thing to say or think,_ “in Wisconsin. I flew out there when I left Amity. I had hoped you still lived there and could tell me what was going on, but I guess that all worked out. Oh, what happened to your house dude? It was like a burnt out-”

“No kid, I meant _how_ are you here. You know, not disappeared into the ether like when time ran out on your watch. Who gave that to you by the way?”

“I think it’s this Medallion. I mean as long as I’m wearing it, I’m not in the timeline, or that’s how it’s supposed to work. Hey! Maybe if I take it off-”

“Don’t! Don’t even think about it.” Vlad had reached across and stopped the younger male’s hand before it could even get above neck level.

“Wait, why not? I mean once I re-enter the timestream-line thingy, I should go right back home. That’s what happened last time I took it off.”

“You’ve done this more than once?” incredulity crept into his voice. _What being powerful enough to have access to this kind of technology would allow a teenage boy to mess around with time repeatedly?_

“Oops.” That had come out of nowhere. He’d forgotten how perceptive Vlad was. _Note to self, be as vague as possible around the Fruitloop._ “Uh, nevermind that. Why can’t I take it off?” _Brilliant Fenton, because abruptly changing subjects has worked so well for you before._

“To explain this in a manner you would understand, you would cease to exist. At the moment, you exist outside of time, if you are correct about the effects of the Time Medallion. As such, the distinctly different path time took to get to now doesn’t affect you. To put it bluntly, if you were to re-enter the timestream _now_ you’d disappear along with the rest of your reality.”

“But wait,” he began, more confused now than when he’d been thinking about it the last few hours, “ your saying that like my reality or time thingy doesn’t exist at all or something? If I’m from an alternative universe or something, then taking this thing off should send me back to it right?”

“Yes you are from an alternative universe, an… alternative conception of this _current_ time. You can’t go back to your own time by taking off the Medallion because there’s no time to go back _to_. The two realities likely don’t exist at the same time, or you would have ended up back in your own time when you jumped forward. As far as I can tell, _this_ time is the only one that exists, and you aren’t actually a part of it, as surprising as that is for me.” Vlad stopped; frowning in concentration as he thought through a few more details. “Who gave you this thing?” He tugged at the pocket watch, hand still grasping Danny’s.

“I-“ Danny started before remembering the older man’s promise about target practice and his mother if he pulled out the phrase “I can’t tell you.” “Um, his name is, well I can’t tell you that, but I can say he’s a ghost. A really powerful one who’s probably going to kill me if I tell you.”

The elder halfa resisted the urge to make good on his promise of throwing him to the wolves in frustration. _How am I supposed to help him if he won’t trust me?_ “Danny, if I can’t figure out how to get you back to your own universe, it won’t matter if this ghost wants you dead or not. Being stuck here with only a necklace keeping you alive is precarious enough as it is. I doubt he’d make an appearance if he hasn’t already.” He tightened his grip on the pocket watch for a moment before letting it fall, convinced the other half ghost wouldn’t try taking it off.

“Well you don’t have to figure out anything. Just get me to the Ghost Zone, and I can get to Clo- I mean the ghost’s place on my own.” Danny announced, tucking the Medallion back under his shirt.

Vlad eyed the item as it was set back into place, turning over the new information in his mind. Finally he shook his head and sat back down on the opposite set of seats in the cabin. “I’d love to, little badger, but that’s almost as impossible as getting you into another universe myself. I don’t own a ghost portal, all of the man-made ones belong to the GSU, and all of the natural portals are heavily guarded, both by men and secrecy. There are only a few I know of, and none of them are close or safe enough to attempt a trip to. If you need to get into the Ghost Zone, that’s as good as being stuck here.”

Danny felt bubbles of irritation well up in his stomach. “Well then what the hell am I supposed to do? I can’t go anywhere on Earth on my own, the GSU would be on me in a minute, and the Ghost Zone is my only option for getting back to my own time.”

“I know. Listen, for now you’re staying with us. While any man-made portal would be a suicide mission, if I had enough time, I could probably get you through the security around one of the natural portals. It would be difficult, and take me a couple of months to plan, but it’s your only option.” Vlad concluded while crossing the scant distance between him and Danny. “But first, we need a more permanent solution to the dangers of that Medallion falling off. Transform.”

“Why?” At the moment, he didn’t really feel like being bossed around. _Just because I have to be stuck with you for a few months that doesn’t mean I’m going to be nice about it._

“Because phasing that thing around your human organs would kill you; now transform.” Vlad tapped his foot impatiently against the metallic floor of the Hover.

“What! No way am I letting you-”

“So, you have a better idea for how to avoid it falling off, or getting taken off, or cut off, or some other unfortunate thing that would result in your immediate _death_? No?” Vlad barely waited a breath for plunging ahead, “then morph right this instance so we can get this over with.”

“Fine.” Danny grumbled, frustrated over the complete lack of control he had over even simple parts of his life, like his right to not have things stuck inside his body. With an extra huff of annoyance, the young hybrid let his transformation rings travel the length of his body, changing him into Phantom.

Vlad wasted no time taking a hold of the dangling Medallion and turning it intangible. _Thank God. I thought for a moment it might not be affected by ghost powers._ He carefully slid it inside, just a few centimeters from the other hybrid’s pulsating core, before slipping his hand back out. “There, at least now no one will be able to see it.”

A few incoherent grumbles later, and Danny was transformed back into his human self. “You do know I won’t be able to get that out on my own right?”

“And if nothing ridiculous happens in between now and when you need to go home, you won’t have to. Also, don’t use your powers again until I get a bracelet made for you. That’s _very_ important. Now, head out there and tell Maddie I need to speak with her.”

“What for? Nevermind, you do have to sweet talk her into letting me stay. So shouldn’t we work on a story or something?” Danny shrugged off the admonishment about using his powers. He hadn’t planned on it, not wanting to reveal his powers to the other Masters’ family members.

Vlad scoffed before opening the side of the Hover for Danny to leave. “You mean lie? Danny I’m going to need her help getting you anywhere near the Ghost Zone; I can’t lie to her about this. Besides, I wouldn’t even if I had to, I hate lying to her, and she’s got a sixth sense about it anyway.”  

“Wait you’re going to tell her?” Danny was having a hard time understanding the point of letting his mom in on the situation.

 “If I don’t, she’ll find out anyway, and then _I’ll_ be in the dog house. And there’s no amount of goodwill or positive karma on the planet worth that.” Vlad paused to send a ‘shooing’ motion Danny’s way. “Now get, skedaddle, and tell your mother to get over here.” He watched Danny step out of the Hover, scowl placed firmly on his face. “Oh and Danny?”

Danny paused but didn’t bother looking back. “What?” He snapped.

“Play nice with your brothers and sisters hm?”

“Yeah whatever.” _Oh rub it in asshole. As soon as I get back to my own time, I’m kicking your crazy Fruitloop cheesehead all the way back to Wisconsin._ Danny shuffled over to where the rest of the group was standing, looking expectant. “Um, Maddie?” He waited until the older woman looked over in his direction. She was still sporting a tight stressed expression, to his disappointment. “Yeah, Vlad wants to talk.” He was keeping the conversation as short as possible, as if calling his mother by her first name wasn’t awkward enough.

Maddie didn’t respond; instead she clomped off towards the Hover, movements a buzz with barely contained energy.

He could feel his nerves firing back up now. Danny tried to break the ice, “so um, I think I’m staying with you guys for awhile, like a couple months”

“Oh perfect, because we really needed was a snarf to our Thundercats.”

“Shut up Daniel.” Jasmine snapped over at him. “Ignore him. He’s just upset because he’s grounded for the next three weeks. Anyway, if you’re going to be staying here for a few months, there are some ground rules I need to go over.”

_Well at least that hasn’t changed. Jazz, still bossy and pretending she’s an adult._ “Ok fire away.” It couldn’t be so bad, and staying on everyone’s good side was going to make these next couple months bearable for everyone involved.

Jasmine nodded in acknowledgement before continuing, “Rule one, what my parents say goes, no matter how ridiculous or paranoid it seems. We live a really precarious life trying to avoid the government and the vast majority of the country, so there are some extreme measures they have to take to keep us safe. Don’t jeopardize it. Rule two,” Jasmine’s tone took on the drone of practiced rote memory and lecturing combined into one. “Everyone helps out. I don’t know if you’re used to doing chores or something, but get used to doing everything from setting up equipment to helping cook and clean. Rule three, if the parents aren’t around I’m in charge.”

Daniel rolled his eyes skyward in response to the last rule. “Except if we are in the middle of a fire fight, and then _I’m_ in charge. The last thing I need is an inexperienced fighter mucking around on the battle field.”

“Whatever you Tzu Sun wannabee. Rule four, there is to be _no_ unauthorized contact with the outside world. Unless Mom or Dad say you can, I don’t know, use the radio or go into a town when we are on the road, you avoid everyone and everything like it’s the Plague. Get it?”

“Wait, so you’re saying you guys don’t have the internet or television?” He’d been without the internet and the wonder that was Doom 2 for, well, nearly two weeks, and he as beginning to feel something suspiciously like withdrawal symptoms.

Jasmine and her brother broke out into a hearty set of laughs.

“Oh God wait, you’re serious.” Jasmine gasped through another even louder set of giggles. “O-Ok…ok. I’ll st-stop laughing a-at you.” She claimed still giggling up a storm.

“I think what my sister is trying to say,” Daniel paused for another quick few laughs of his own, “is that’s a really stupid question. Of course we don’t have the internet or TV, what part of no contact with the outside world don’t you get? Next you’ll be saying you can’t believe we don’t go to public school.”

“But why?”

“I’m going to assume that question is because you don’t have the foggiest idea how the internet works? Or how television works for that matter.” Daniel shook his head and sent Danny a look that could only be described as “you poor ignorant fool.”

Naturally, Danny didn’t appreciate being condescended to. “I know how it works!” It was mostly his bruised ego talking. He was never one for technical stuff, that was Tucker, and he rarely if ever listened to his parents, usually they were just talking about how to kill and dissect ghosts, as awkward as the subject was around him, so he only had a vague idea how either of those things operated.

“We’re too far out to get anything but satellite TV, and all the clouds and stuff in the mountains interfere. Besides,-” Nick started before his brother cut him off.

“-even if it didn’t, the government is watching for any unauthorized access to their satellites, and most commercial satellites too.  I mean Dad can dial into them sometimes, but that’s only when he’s spying on them for news, and only for a few hours.” Nate concluded.

“The munchkins are right. It would be way too dangerous to do for something like satellite TV.” Daniel looked over at Danny with a deeply meaningful stare. “And that goes double for the internet.”

“Can’t you just use a firewall and a proxy or somethin’?” Danny offered.

“We’re being hunted by the _government_ Danny. This is like, 1984 level intrusion. If you think a firewall and a proxy is going to stop them, I’m scared to let you near anything that might possibly give off a signal they could track.”

“Dad has to use like a router with an IP that changes every ten minutes at an internet café with cash or a card registered to a fake name to use the internet man. Like-”

“-We’d ever get to play on it just for kicks. Between the GSU and Jack Fenton-”

“Wait, what does Jack Fenton have to do with anything?” Danny hadn’t pressed them for information about his father before, even after they mentioned they thought he was nuts, but now seemed as good a time as any.

“You mean other than being crazier than a Japanese Kamikaze pilot? Nothing.” Jasmine explained through grit teeth.   

 “What’s the matter with him?” To call Danny puzzled would be an understatement. There was no reason he could fathom that his father would be crazier than the _Fruitloop_. _Though at this point, it’s looking like a rather misplaced nickname._ Danny considered.

Daniel chuckled from his position across from the hapless teen. “He’s kinda like Khan if my father was Captain Kirk. He’s got a vengeance problem.” At the blank stare the other teen was sending his way, Daniel clarified. “You know, Star Trek, the original series? I…why do I bother?” He shrugged in a helpless sort of way, as if he got this kind of reaction regularly.

_Boy and I thought I was a loser. Who watches that dorky old sci-fi stuff anyway?_ “Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask. You said you liked your dad’s name more. How come he didn’t name you after him?” _Vlad never struck me as humble enough to avoid naming his kids after himself._  

“Oh, well weirdly enough, he named me after a friend he made in his early twenties.”

“He-He did?”

“He was never specific about it, but he claimed the guy was a master matchmaker, and he owed him one. Whatever.” Daniel looked over his shoulder at the rest of Camp farther down the valley. “Come on, I guess we should show you around instead of just standing here.”

“And by ‘we’, you mean you. Nick, Nate, you have chores to do, and so do I.” Jasmine started off in the direction of a large pile of half taken apart equipment half-dragging half guiding her brothers along with her. “Oh,” she stopped a few paces away from the now awkward looking pair, “and when you get over to the stream tell, Lizzie to come back. It’s almost time for dinner.”

“Yeah roger that red leader, I’ll get right on it.” Daniel rolled his eyes and grabbed Danny by the sleeve of his hoodie. “Come on let’s get out of here before she gets any more officious.”

Back inside the Hover Vlad was having a hell of a time convincing Maddie to go along with his plans for Danny. _Not like convincing her of anything isn’t next to impossible._ He mentally griped. “Maddie listen, letting him stay with us wouldn’t be dangerous, and if we kick him out, he’d be dead in a matter of hours. This is the only safe place for him, whether or not we go through with the plan to get him home.”

“Vlad it’s not that I don’t trust your judgment; I know as well as you that _if_ this young man is telling the truth that we’re his only chance. On the other hand, what assurances do we have that he’s who he says he is? For all we know, he’s an imposter, something the GSU made to infiltrate us and report back to them.”  Maddie rubbed at a sore spot on her back; she’d been working with scavenged equipment before this, and was achy because of it.

“Because he knows things no one else but the two of us would. He knows the exact words from my last conversation with him, before he disappeared. There was no one around but us, and unless the GSU has the ability to time travel, they wouldn’t be able to give him the memories needed.” He was getting a little tired of repeating himself without letting her in on the nature of his specific conversation. To be honest, he wasn’t sure how much longer he’d be able to get away with being vague. As much as he wanted to let Maddie in on everything he knew, the possibility of her learning a teenager convinced him to drop his grudge against her ex-husband wasn’t pleasant. _Though admittedly that’s just my pride talking._

“I-pumpkin I just don’t know.” Maddie pushed away from the wall she was leaning against and straightened up to relieve pressure on her sore back. “I believe you, I do, and I know you have almost a sixth sense for danger, it’s just-can I speak with him? Just by myself.”

The middle aged hybrid mulled over the request. There wasn’t any harm and letting them speak; he’d just have to ask Danny not to mention certain details. “Well I don’t see why not,” Vlad started nodding in acquiesce, “I’ll go get him.” He intoned cutting off her movements to leave. He watched in muted concern as she carefully, too carefully, lowered herself into one of the seats. With a show of self-control, he managed to avoid visibly seething until after the door to the Hover had closed. While she might have blamed her sore back on all the heavy lifting she’d done earlier, he wasn’t fooled.

There was a dark purple bruise spread along the entire lower half of her back from their last visit into town about a week back. They’d run into some trouble with the locals when Vlad had been recognized, and she’d been thrown through a wall by some GSU ghosts on leashes. What was worse, it had only aggravated still unhealed tear injuries to the area when she’d last had a fire fight with those government flunkies; that time of the human variety.

Just seeing his wife in so much pain made him want to blow something into small pieces, preferably something that worked for the GSU, human or not. But the anger changed focus almost as soon as he thought about blowing up some humanoid shaped GSU targets. _It’s mostly my fault anyway. If I had been more careful, or had been paying more attention..._ He sighed away the thoughts, resisting the urge to wallow in self-loathing. He had more important things to do at the moment. _Like finding where those kids have wandered off to._ Vlad thought irritably, scanning the horizon for the younger members of their group. He frowned when his visual search came up empty and set off for the living areas of Camp; they were likely slacking off on chores over there…

“And this is the edge of Camp, well the official edge. We can go past it, as long as we are wearing these.” Daniel explained while holding up his right wrist, the onyx and silver bangle gleaming in the late afternoon sun.

“What’a they do?” Danny asked, having seen the twins sporting a bracelet looking something like that, _and_ he’d heard Vlad mention it. At this point, the trinkets had gone from unimportant detail to interesting.

“They work like the shield, whose edge is right in front of us, suppressing our ghost energy so it can’t be picked up.”

“Picked up? By what, er who, no wait both questions.” Danny clarified.

“Detected is more like it. By the orbiting earth satellites that work for the GSU or other equivalent spectral agencies around the world. Admittedly, they can only pick up our energy if we use our ghost powers outside of the shield, most of the time, but its-”

“Most of the time?” Danny was beginning to get a nervous feeling in the pit of his stomach, one he was getting all too used to in this reality when it came to the GSU.

“Yeah some of their satellites can scan for even trace amounts of our energy if they have it on record, and they do for me and my father. So even the stuff we have swimming around in human form when not using our ghost powers can get detected. That’s what the bracelets are for, oh, but we don’t have to wear those in Camp, that’s what the shield is for.” Daniel finished with a far off look in his eyes. “Must be nice to not have to worry about that.” He muttered before striding off in another direction.

  _Should I tell-No. As long as I’m inside the shield, they won’t be able to detect my ghost energy anyway, and I haven’t used my powers since Wisconsin, so I’m fine._ Danny trudged after his otherworldly twin through as the dirt in the area thickened into mud. “Wha is-”

“We’re close to Crystal River, and it floods on the regular in the summers, this _is_ a river valley after all. Anyway, the dirt around here is some awful combination of sand and silt, so it turns into this thick muck all summer if you’re within hundred feet of a drop of water.” Daniel explained while trekking through the mud.

A thick slurping sound followed their every foot step as they closed in on the river proper.

“So why are we getting closer to the source of all this mess?” Danny struggled to lift his legs against the vacuum like mixture. With a frustrated huff, he stopped trying to tug his legs free with every step. Instead he turned the bottom of his legs intangible slipping effortlessly through the thick earth. _So much easier._

Daniel was too busy struggling with his own legs to notice Danny’s trick. “Because my little sister is out here playing gold miner and ‘being one with nature’, or whatever rainbow love child nonsense my father indulges her in.”

Danny nearly fell over when the shock of learning about _another_ Masters’ sibling distracted him from using his ghost powers. “Dude, you have a little sister too?”

“Yeah I know, I know. Sometimes I swear my parents are trying to do an imitation of rabbits.”

“Ok one, ew, and two, way too much information. Are we there yet?” Danny’s abrupt change of topics was based on more than the uncomfortable subject matter; he was sick of the mud too. _Right it’s definitely the mud I have a problem with._

“Yeah it’s right up here.” Daniel pointed a few feet away, and the river itself came into view as they cleared a bend in the tree line. He hopped into the river to wash the remainder of the mud from the bottom of his pants, before looking around for his sister. He knew she wouldn’t wander far.

“Daniel!” A young voice called from a few feet away.

“There you are Elizabeth. Come on, big sister says it’s time for dinner, you need to come back to Camp.” Daniel bent down next to a small girl and hoisted her into his arms.

Danny was floored for the second time in as many hours. The little girl was an even more obvious combination of her parents than any of the other children. His mother’s auburn hair mixed with Vlad’s steely blue eyes peered back at him curiously. _I honestly should be getting used to this, but you know, when I’m not longer surprised by the freaky shit in this reality, then I’ll either be jaded beyond hope or possess no hope for getting home._ Danny pondered before trying to take a step. He quickly fell face first into the gooey mud, legs stuck, half-phased into the ground. _Oh right._ He fixed the phasing problem, and unstuck himself with the grace of a bull in a china shop. It wasn’t like grace was his best quality anyway. A few minutes later, he had washed off the remaining mud from his face, leaving his pants for later.

“Hello.” A quiet high pitched, but calm voice spoke near Danny’s ear. He was still bent over from washing off mud.

“Uh hey.” Danny turned towards the person hovering right by him with small frown.  He was met with a pair of bright inquisitive eyes and a large grin. Oddly enough, her smile seemed contagious, and before he could really question how, Danny was in a much better mood. “So you’re Elizabeth?”

The little girl nodded. “Elizabeth Amelia Victoria Masters. I’m pleased to make your acquaintance.” She performed a clumsy curtsey before straightening up. “What’s your name?”

“He’s Danny, and _we’re_ going to be late if we don’t leave now.” Daniel scooped her back up and turned back towards Camp.

Elizabeth gave her older brother an odd smile and leaned against him to peer over his shoulder. “You’ll leave Danny. The mud’s too thick.”

“Well he made it here fine on his own.”

“Don’t be grumpy Daniel.” She frowned lightly before snuggling deeper into his arms. “Someone got in trouble with mommy and daddy.” She announced her eyes flashing a deep purple before changing back to normal.

“ _Whatever_ Lizzie and stop using your powers like that.” Daniel paused at the bend that led back into the forest. “Are you gonna make it on your own, or do you need me to work some ghost magic on your legs till we get out of this mud?” He offered, not entirely sure if the sudden change of heart was his own or his sister’s doing.

“Uhg, I’d rather not muck through the trenches again. Can’t we just cheat and say we didn’t?” Danny caught up to them, legs already caked in another layer of thick brown gunk. He took the offered hand, ready to get back to somewhere made of actually solid ground.   

 

* * *

            Washington DC, GSU Headquarters

 

The Head Commander sat drumming his fingers impatiently against his chair.

It had been hours since the last viable energy reading on 2nd priority, and they’d gotten nothing from the mysterious new ghost hybrid since it stopped in Wisconsin.

The fact it had met up with the other targets was proof enough in his mind that the new hybrid was related to Plasmius’ group somehow. He wasn’t sure where it had come from; it wasn’t as if Plasmius could just make one, _well at least not in a way that would have it already 14._ He mulled over. So, the hybrid had appeared on its own. All of the man-made portals were well guarded, so that was an impossibility.

There was still the slim chance it was just a copy cat of unprecedented skill, but every subsequent and more accurate reading of its energy made that option slimmer and slimmer.

Consequential, that left him sitting bored and frustrated waiting for another energy signature to pinpoint the mysterious ghost’s position, and that of the rest of the nest. While there was no way they’d miss 2nd priority if it started using its powers again, for some reason it had a way to suppress its energy from being detected.

A pattern of clicking heels resonated throughout the Command Center. “Anything?” The footstep’s owner asked after settling in beside the Commander.

“Not a damn thing Agent J. It’s like those bastards disappeared off of the face of the planet.” He shook his head and slouched into his seat, spandex suit squeaking against the chair’s material. “I’ve got our telemetry experts looking over the possible destinations from the last energy reading and comparing it to their last known locations and old data on possible hiding places. Unfortunately, the most they can do is narrow it down into a tri-state area, which is _fucking useless._ ” He emphasized the last two words, scowling over at his ducking subordinates.

Jillian sighed and leaned closer to her Commanding officer, not waiting the words to carry too far, “Sir, calm down. I know you’re worried about the meeting with the Secretary of Defense later today, but those creatures aren’t going to escape.”

“Jillian, we can’t even get a reading on that mystery hybrid, probably some more of Plasmius’ shit interfering. What exactly am I supposed to tell my superiors? Right after I promised we _wouldn’t_ lose it.” The Head Commander whispered back.

“Something _will_ come through Commander. Even Plasmius makes mistakes.” Jill assured from her position at the Commander’s side.        

“Sir, we just picked up a signal from the unidentified hybrid. It was too short to properly triangulate, but it is in the same direction that second priority was traveling, and it came from Colorado, somewhere in the Rockies.”

The Head Commander studiously ignored the smug smirk tugging at the corners of his second in command’s face. With all of the help she did for him and his organization, she deserved a few displays of hubris. “When you add that into the older data, where does that leave us?” If he was lucky it would narrow his search area down significantly.

One of the techs tapped out a few keystrokes into the computer inputting the new data. “Sir, from the looks of it, they are somewhere along the Crystal River, probably the near the Elk Mountain range inside the Rockies, but that’s an area about 750 square miles in size. We’d need to have a satellite look over the area for signs of habitation to confirm and narrow the likely sites for the ghost hybrids’ whereabouts.” He leaned back away from the screen to give his superior officers a better view.

The map was completely topographical, ignoring some of the particulars of terrain that would only be a hindrance under most circumstances.

“Could you overlap that map with the latest reports on ghost activity and splice in an overhead view of the area from our satellites with spectral analysis.” Jill ordered, saddling up to the holographic display in front of her.

“Agent J?” the Head Commander question, not seeing where she was going with her requests.

“Commander, they are going to be somewhere with water, and easily defensible, and there should be more reports of higher ghost activity. Even if we can’t see their energy, we’ll be able to see an unnatural dip in the amount of spectral energy in an area where all of those combine. When we see that, we’ll know it’s not just a variation, and we’ll have them.” Jill crossed her arms and stared into the coalescing maps. “Commander, you might want to leave for the meeting now, I’ll meet you over there with the final map and likely locations, and we can set out for Colorado from there.” She suggested eyes never wavering from the clearing combination of maps in front of her.

“Alright Agent J, I’ll see you in a few minutes.” He strode from the room, subordinates standing to attention, confident in his ability to convince the Secretary of Defense to authorize a strike against the hybrids. This was just as personal to Muller as it was to him, the Secretary’s son having lost his life in the attack on Amity Park when he was only a grunt in the GSU. _If I recall correctly, the boy joined up straight out of high school, wanting to do something paramilitary while still staying in the country. He even refused his father’s political string pulling to get him a highly paid officered desk job. Pity, determined recruits like him are hard to find these days._ He didn’t stop in the home away from home of his personal set of offices; he didn’t need to change into a suit for this meeting. The Secretary was coming to him, and so he’d be the comfortable one this time. Still, between his own research and inventions, and his work as the GSU Head Commander, he basically lived at the facility. _It’s not like I have a family to come home too. Thank God for Jillian, or I’d probably never eat or leave._ It wasn’t entirely true; he did have to leave occasionally for staff meetings at other places in the capitol. Just the same, his whole life was the agency and ridding the world of the ghost threat, especially the ones he was about to capture. The Head Commander rounded the last corner in the hallway leading to the meeting room. A currently unused lab had been converted into a conference room for the duration of the short meeting. It was just supposed to be a simple check up on their progress, but in a few moments, if everything went as he wanted, he’d be getting authorization for a serious attack against the hybrid menace. “Secretary Muller, it’s nice to see you again.”

“Cut the bullshit Commander. You know as well as I this isn’t a pleasure meeting. The President wants to know how far you’ve come in locating the hybrids, and the answer had better be better than what that sniveling underling of yours suggested.” The Secretary rubbed at a headache forming at his left temple. It wasn’t that he disliked the GSU program, far from it; he was one of the only supporters left in Washington. But that was exactly the problem; he was one of the few supporters left in Washington, and that put him in at odds with the current administration, with its sweeping promises to reign in the national budget and expenditures, his favored agency was on the chopping block. Even the reemergence of a ghost in Amity hadn’t helped sway political opposition against the GSU, with how poorly they had preformed, so he’d just been on the receiving end of a very bad conversation with the President of the United States. If they didn’t locate the hybrids within the next 24 hours, he had been ordered to command an immediate hiatus of operations until a budget review of the agency had been done.

He felt a genuine smile pull at the edges of his typical calm mask. “I’m happy to inform you, we’ve narrowed the locations down to a 750 square mile area, and my second in command is finishing the last preparations needed to pinpoint the hybrids’ exact position. She should arrive soon enough.”

“Don’t play with me Commander. What you’re suggesting is something you’ve claimed to be impossible for nearly the four years since you lost them in Amity, getting past that Plasmius creatures’ spectral shielding.” It was exciting news to be sure, but he _had_ to be sure before he reported it back to his superiors at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

“This is no joke Muller. I admit, Plasmius’ shields are the best on the planet, they’d have to be to avoid the detection of United States government, but my information was based on its past behavior. It’s never let one of the younger hybrids get so caught up in our web; to be honest this level of callous disregard leaves me worried about it being a trap.” He frowned as the new angle flitted across his mind, puzzling out all of the possibilities, before shaking his head to clear it. “Nevertheless, this is too golden an opportunity to pass up. From my own data on their behavior, Plasmius never stays in a single spot more than three months, and even rotates the sets of areas it revisits before abandoning them completely. It’s what makes them so blastedly hard to capture. _This_ time sir is something different, and we have to capitalize on our enemy’s mistakes, as few and far between as they are.” He sat down across from the Defense Secretary, his significant weight making the smaller chair of the converted lab sag slightly.  

Muller rested his head in one hand, wondering how to proceed. “What do you need?” No matter the argument he’d get at the White House, he’d get the Commander’s requests approved. The next order of business was getting the GSU out from under the direct chain of command of the President. He was sick of the bureaucratic bullshit.

This time, a full fledged grin split his hardened façade. It wasn’t often he and his organization got a blank check and open ended go ahead. “Get me authorization for a major operation. Tanks, jets, lethal force, complete mobilization of my active soldiers, the works, and I’ll get you a hybrid nest to put in your retirement cap.” He requested, tone booming with excitement. He suppressed a wince at the volume of his own voice, sometimes it still got away from him.

The door clicked open and closed in rapid succession. The only person who’d interrupt a meeting this important without knocking strode into the room.

“Sir, Secretary Muller, I’ve got the final positions for the hybrids’ locations. I’d like you to look over it before I tell you my choice for the most likely position.” Agent J saddled up to her commanding officer, picture of military efficiency.

“Thank you Agent J, give me just a second to look this over Muller.” He explained before glancing over the map.

There were three areas highlighted in decreasing intensity of color, representing the level of confidence in the locations of the hybrids.

“This one.” The Head Commander announced with certainty, pointing to the least shaded position on the map.

“Commander, that’s the least likely location on the list. Why would you pick that one?”

“Because it’s the least likely location on the list, and I know how that creature Plasmius thinks. It’d be able to predict what we look for in a site for them and would choice accordingly, picking the most difficult area to colonize as added protection.” He leaned back and slid the map across the table at the Secretary. “If you look closely, the area also has the largest dip in detected ambient spectral energy, as well as the highest increase in ghost activity. The reason it’s so low on the list is because of the difficulty in getting to and from the area and the terrain itself acting inhospitable. Such things are of little concern to a creature that can fly or invent things to solve those problems easily.”

Secretary Muller frowned in consideration at the map before staring directly into the Head Commander’s eyes. They’d been friends for years, going back to the man’s rise to leading the former Guys in White. Looking at his eyes now, he recognized the wild free gleam that always preceded them hitting the proverbial jackpot. “How sure are you about this?”

“I’d beat my career on it. Those creatures are there and this may be the one chance to catch them off guard. Plasmius is sure to move the group when he realizes how compromised they are by the new hybrid’s actions. We have maybe another day before the entire site will look like no one’s ever lived there. We need to move now.”

A shuffle of paper later, Muller was standing from his spot across from the Head Commander and his second. “Alright. You have my permission to use any and every means necessary to capture and detain these dangerous hostiles. Try to make sure you get at least one of them alive. I’m sure your lab boys and mine in the other branches would like a swing at their…unusual physiology.” The Defense Secretary pressed his chair back into place and reached across the table for a hand shake. “Do us proud Commander. In a few hours I hope to have a hybrid hide or two in the government lab, and so our country can lay claim to the destruction of this planet’s most dangerous threats.”

The Commander took Secretary Muller’s hand into a tight grip, eyes shining like a kid in a candy store. “Oh trust me Dirk; this will be a day you won’t forget.” He released the other man’s hand and started for the door. “By the way,” he started just as he reached the threshold for the room, “tell our Commander in Chief to have those Ghost Zone exploration forms signed when we get back. With the Hybrids out of the way, the nation’s next leading threat will be the remaining creatures in their twisted world.”

“Can do. I’ll look forward to the fruits of your success.” Secretary Muller watched them leave with a combination of nervous energy and respect. They were walking into a self-made fire storm by seeking out these beasts on their own turf. _But that’s why they’re the best._ He concluded before gathering up the last of his papers and stuffing them into a brief case. The Defense Secretary had a long road ahead of him to get their attack approved by the President in time. But then again, that’s why _he_ was the best.

The Head Commander and his second waltzed into the HQ, all buzzing energy and purpose. It didn’t take long for the men and women, standing at attention in the room, to know something big was going down. “My fine officers, today we have the opportunity to make a major strike against our enemy. Because of the ingenious collaboration of Agent J and the finest telemetry experts in the country, we’ve found our personal holy grail. Within the hour, we’ll have approval from the President himself, and will be readying an assault on the hybrid’s hiding place.” He paused as raucous applause and cheering echoed throughout the room. “Now, now,” he began, holding up a hand to silence the noise in the room, “none of this would be possible without that new hybrid coming right to our doorstep in Amity Park. It’s delivered to us the heads of our enemies, all without ever trying. So how about we give a ‘thank you’ to the little creature that has brought about the others’ downfall.”

The room broke into a cacophony of sarcastic thanks, several of the room’s occupants going so far as to clap in mock gratitude.

“The fine men and women of the GSU, the world’s greatest ghost hunters, we now stand at the precipice, on the eve of capturing the crown jewel of this establishment. In a few hours, the most dangerous threat the world has ever known will be destroyed, and _we_ will be getting commendations from the President himself. In a few hours, with the annihilation of our foes, we’ll finally have approval to smite those creatures in the twisted world they inhabit. In a few hours, we will have Plasmius’ head on a pike and be victorious!” Another deafening cry rose from the assembled members of the room, cutting the Head Commander off in the middle of his speech. Despite the nearly overwhelming cries in the room, his booming voice carried over the ambient noise. “And in that moment, my loyal officers, the world’s finest, we will finally have shown the last of the straggling ghosts shivering and cowering in their dimension that we are unstoppable. On _this_ day, I will lead you to capture not only our greatest enemies, but a never forgotten page in the history of our species!”

A final great cry came from the assembled men and women in the room and throughout the building where it was being broadcast. Without another word or order, the officers began preparing for an immediate full assault.

The Head Commander and his second strode from the room, heading for the hanger bay, where the transport air ships would be flying everything from troops to their supplies to the Colorado battle ground. He’d just stepped inside the hanger when a subordinate handed him a faxed over copy of the authorization from the President’s desk.

 “Sir, don’t you think that last bit was too much?” Agent J leaned close to be heard over the excited cheers of her subordinates as the doors to the hangar closed.

“What last part?” He had to admit, he sometimes got carried away with his speeches, but that one seemed right on point.

“The part the sounded like ‘and I shall be amongst you, leading us to glorious triumph!’” Jill mock quoted him, adding extra dramatics.    

“What are you talking about? Of course I’m leading the assault!”

“What Commander are you sure?” Jill joined him on the lift just before the doors closed. She wanted an extra few seconds of privacy. “You know _it’s_ probably going to be there.”

“I know Jill, and that’s exactly why I’m going.” The Head Commander’s face was drawn into a serious grimace. Just thinking about seeing Plasmius again in person after their last battle left him both excited and apprehensive.

“I know it’s just…” She trailed off, not sure how to approach the subject. _He’s always jumpy about this Plasmius character._ “You’re not you when you fight with him. You’re not the calm collected political manipulator, or the passionate unstoppable ghost hunter you are in the field. You aren’t even the goofy inventor I know from working with you in the lab; you’re like a runaway train and I hate seeing you like that Sir.” Jill rested against the back of the lift waiting for her Commanding officer’s reply.

“I know Jill, and that’s why I’m going. Once this is over, both Plasmius and that side of me can die at once. He’s not going to escape this time; I’ll make sure of it.” The lift screeched to a halt just as the Commander finished his explanation. “Now come on Jill, we have few ghosts to kill.”

Jillian wavered at the edge of the lift giving the subject one last thought. _But I don’t think kill it will put everything right with **her**._

 

* * *

 

Vlad looked over the combination of equipment and supplies that made up the cooking area of camp. He’d already searched the RV and Spartan entertainment area and came up empty. _If they aren’t sleeping, or fighting over the television, they’d be eating something._ He popped his head into the tent with the stove and oven.

Jasmine was stirring a big pot of food over the propane stove. She leaned over and checked something in the oven, before returning to stirring.

“Jasmine, there you are. At least I can trust _you_ to help out around here.” He scoffed while passing a glance around the rest of the tent. “I don’t suppose you know where your brothers have gotten off to?” He could usually trust her to keep at least marginal tabs on her siblings’ whereabouts.

“Sure thing. Daniel went to show the new kid around, so he should be coming back with Lizzie any time now. As for the twins, they were mucking around with the equipment Mom was messing with earlier. So I would try the storage area or salvage area, but even so,” she stopped to close the top on the pot filled with something stew like, “they’ll be over here soon enough. Just as soon as their stomachs start complaining.” She slid on a pair of oven mittens and reached into it after something cooking inside.

“Thanks for your help. Oh, I need to speak with you after dinner about a few things.”

“What about?” She asked hands half-way into the oven.

“Just about the GSU a few hours ago. There’s something bothering me about it, and I’m sure you can help clear it up.” He heard her saying something to the affirmative before slipping out of the tent. To his surprise, the twins were already out front, setting up the kitchen table. _That only leaves-_

“I hate to ask, really, but you do at least have running water and shit right? Because at this point, I’m assuming I live in a third world country and every modern convince is suspect.” Danny complained covered in mud to the hips a few feet behind Daniel.    

“Hey! It’s not my fault you fell into that mud pit. I told you to go around with me, but _nnnnooooo_ you just _had_ to prove it wasn’t that deep. Well guess what genius? Laundry isn’t for another 3 days, so I hope you brought more clothes than that with you.”

“Stop bickering! It’s not nice.” Lizzie pouted her lips in Daniel’s direction from his arms. Her eyes flashed purple again, and this time her older brother nearly dropped her in frustration.

“How many times have I told you to stop doing that? I’m not a happy dancing puppet.” He set her on the ground, mouth twisted into a deep scowl.

“Daniel!” Vlad didn’t even have to say anything else, his tone conveying what was missing in words.

“Oh come on father, that’s not fair. You’re going to spoil her rott-”

“Be nice to your baby sister Daniel.” He shook his head and pointed at the other teenager next to his son. “You go on over to the Hover. Maddie wants to speak with you.” He turned away from Danny without a second thought and sent a heated glare in Daniel’s direction. “Just because you’re in a bad mood, that doesn’t mean you can take it out on her. No excuses,” He cut him off before a sound had even traveled out of his open mouth. “Go help your sister finish up dinner, and stick around afterwards; I need finish that conversation with the two of you about Wisconsin.” He looked back towards the nearly fully set table, and caught Danny still standing around out of the corner of his eye. “Danny, Hover, _yesterday_.” Vlad watched as the boy jolted into action, practically leaping away to the Heracles. He shook his head and treaded over to the cooking tent to help move the food out onto the table.

 Resisting the urge to grumble under his breath, Danny scuffled up to the entrance to the Hover with a look of apprehension plastered clearly across his face. Under ordinary circumstances, conversations of the serious type with his mom weren’t bad enough to leave his stomach in knots, but these weren’t ordinary circumstances. Related to him or not, his mother was basically a stranger in this time, and a suspicious one at that. The half-ghost hero wasn’t sure how this chat was going to go, but if Vlad hadn’t explicitly O.K.’d him staying yet, it was likely his entire chance of living here hung on one conversation with the only adult at camp unsympathetic to him.

“Stop skulking out there; I can hear you, you know.” A mature woman’s voice rang from inside the still closed craft.

_I hope this goes well, because if it doesn’t I’m dead meat._ Danny swallowed hard, and pressed the button on the side of the Hover he assumed opened the side door. The door popped open and slid up as he backed out of the way. He stepped inside, fumbling for the trigger that would close the door on the inside.

“It’s on the left side of the door.”

“Oh.” He turned around and depressed the blue button on the inside wall of the craft before making a beeline for the row of seats across from his mother. If this discussion was going to be awkward, he wanted it over as soon as possible. His mom re-arranged herself across from him, rubbing at a spot at the small of her back before staring directly at Danny.

“So, I just had a few questions for you. I have something to say before that though, so wait until after I’m through to say anything alright.” She saw the young man across from her nod vigorously; his urge to have this over with painfully obvious. “Now Vlad told me a little about you and why you need our help. He said you were from an alternate future, and as hard as it is to believe, personally I just think you’re a ghost in disguise, I trust him.”

_Same old mom, everything is about ghosts._ Danny had to repress a smile, as good as the similarity was making him feel, this wasn’t really the time for grinning. “I can pr-”

“Don’t interrupt, I’m not finished yet.” She gave him one of her light motherly tones. “Now, he says you traveled into the past to help him with something, and that until just a few hours ago, he didn’t know whether he’d made the right decision to keep you alive, as much of a problem as that’s presenting now.” The female ghost hunter frowned and tapped a finger on her chin. “Nevertheless, you’re here now, and as much as I trust my husband as a judge of character, he’s also hopelessly idealistic sometimes. He’d forgive his mortal enemy if he thought it’d do something for the greater good.”

_Yikes! Who are you, and what have you done with the Vlad I know? What is this entire universe Invasion of the Body Snatchers come to life?_

“So, I have a question or two for you, just for my peace of mind. You better answer these truthfully, or else you’re on your own.” She waited until she was sure there was understanding in his eyes, before plunging forward. “When you were in Amity Park, why did you approach the GSU headquarters? The one in Amity is one of the best defended and guarded.”

A breath whooshed past his lips as relief settled into the bones of his being. He’d been thinking the questions would have been harder or more probing than that. “In my own, er timeline, the Amity Park GSU headquarters is where I live, you know Fen-”

“Yes, I know. I’d rather not think of that place…I’m sorry I cut you off, go on.”

“Uh yeah right. So as I was saying, I live there in my own timeline, so I was just walking home. Before that, I didn’t know anything was wrong. I mean as I was walking up to it, it looked wrong. Like different you know? But I brushed it off until the alarm went off.” He rubbed the back of his head to calm his nerves. _Ok note to self, everyone in the world hates my dad, though none of them wants to tell me exactly why. Great._

Maddie felt a tingle of annoyance trickle through her. “But there must have been professional ghost hunters in your own world; maybe the ones that work for the government?”

“Well yeah, but the Guys in White are a freaking joke. I mean, it’s like my dad was teaching a class on ghost hunting and the whole United States government took him seriously and _then_ added a layer of idiotic bureaucracy over the top of that. They couldn’t catch Casper. In fact, they’re so incompetent, I’d bet the box ghost could outfox them.” Just thinking about his version of the GSU almost put him in stitches. They weren’t remotely threatening, not even to a ghost fly.

“So I take it your father isn’t a particularly talented ghost hunter in your timeline?” She refused to refer to him by name. He’d hurt her family too much for that level of respect.

As weird as it was to talk about someone without using their name, and subtly was never his strong suit, he was getting used to it. “What? Are you kidding? You’re a much better ghost hunter than he is, and I’m not just saying that to kiss up or anything.”

“I know. You seem surprisingly forthcoming and honest. Just a few more things. If the,” She paused to recall the exact name he’d called them, “Guys in White of your universe are so unskilled, I’d suppose ghosts are much more common there.” She watched him meld more into his seat, calming more and more as the conversation continued. Maddie couldn’t put her finger on it, but there was something he was hiding.

“Oh yeah they’re all over the place. In fact, I was really surprised at how effective the GSU are here. Did someone give those guys steroids in your timeline or something; ‘cause they are actually pretty scary.”

“Which reminds me of my final two questions. First, how did you travel back into the past originally, and I’d like to know why, but something tells me that’s off limits. Finally, why is the GSU after you in the first place?” That’s the part that didn’t make any sense. They had no reason to spend resource trying to track down a regular kid, unusual circumstances upon arrival or no. That’s the part that left her stumped the most.  

“Uh, I can’t tell you precisely who I got the Medallion I used to time travel from, but I can say he’s a really _really_ powerful ghost who would like totally smite me if I said anything.” He paused to think on the last question. If his mom was asking, it meant she didn’t know he had ghost powers, because apparently in this reality that was enough to warrant being hunted down. _Well,_ he thought, Skulker coming to mind, _not just this timeline._ He shook his head and focused. If she didn’t know already, he had no intention of telling her. Not just because he didn’t want to reveal his secret just yet, but because Vlad hadn’t mentioned it. _And if he didn’t say anything, he must not want her know right now._ He finished finding justifications for his decision and spoke up again. “I think it’s because of the artifact I used to time travel. It has a lot of ghost energy in it, and a ghost as powerful as…um _him_ would be something they’d be interested in. Heck, if they found out about the time traveling, they’d want a piece of me regardless.” Danny hoped that was a convincing enough lie, because that was all he had.

Maddie turned over his answer in her head. There was something off about the statement, but as far as she knew, it was not only completely plausible, but entirely likely. Still, something was telling her that it wasn’t the truth, but with no reason to doubt him, he’d been truthful so far, and no other explanation available, she let the subject pass. “So it’s safe to assume you know Vlad and me from your own timeline?”

“Hey I thought you said only two more questions.” He barely held back a childish looking pout. He had been, looking forward to the end of this little soirée for the last five minutes. _Hell since the moment I walked inside this beetle shaped contraption._

“Well Danny,” Maddie started in the same tone she used to gently chastise her own children, “you reminded me of something else. You can’t honestly expect me to allow you to stay here when I don’t trust you. Besides we already have our own children to take care of, and I need to know you won’t bring the GSU to our doorstep.” Maddie shifted again off of another especially sore area before crossing her arms. She was never as fond of the boy in front of her as her husband, she hadn’t had the opportunity to get to know him as well as he did. Despite the feeling tugging at the back of her mind that she _knew_ this child, more than just the little time he’d spent in the past, her own kids came first.

Unfortunately, the discussion had taken a turn for the worst, and now his mom was, for all intents and purposes, calling him an interloping walking endangerment to her _real_ children. _Oh yeah, just when I thought I couldn’t feel anymore crappy._ “I’m _sorry_ ok? I’m hungry and tired, and just need a place to stay for awhile. Can’t I ju-”

“That’s not entirely true Danny. You want us to help you get home too, and that’s the best decision in my opinion as well.”

“Then what’s the problem?” He huffed. He was more than a little exasperated with the entire conversation at this point. He’d had enough situational information back-handed insults to last a week. It was enough to learn his sister didn’t give two shits about him, but hearing it from his mom was grating through the last of his emotional defenses.  

“The _problem,_ young man, is that is very dangerous. Proper thing to do or not, it’d be safer to have you live the rest of your life with us, but I’d assume that Time Lord you borrowed this ‘Medallion’”, she issued air quotes around the item, “from would like to see you back eventually or risk death. Since that’s the case, it really wouldn’t be practical to keep you here when we _could_ help. If I think you’re not a threat to us on your own, and while I’m not fully convinced of that, it’d be unethical to keep you here not only when you could go home, but when not doing so threatens your life.” Maddie finished by standing from her position across from Danny. “However, you’ve convinced me enough for now to let you stay. This conversation can wait until tomorrow morning or so.” She pressed the button on the left side of the Hover door to open it and stepped out.

 Danny rocketed up from his seat as soon as his mom had set foot outside of the craft. He didn’t have to be told twice that the conversation was over, and he wasn’t waiting another second to leave the claustrophobic space between his mother’s doubts and his fears. “Cool because I’m starving. Is it dinner time yet?” He leaped out and was bounding for where he’d seen the food being set out before he even heard her reply.

By the time Danny and Maddie arrived, everything was all set up for dinner. A big pot of steaming beef stew was sitting in the center of the table, kept warm atop a warming plate. To the right of it was a whole basket full of rolls, crust golden brown and steaming. Finally at the very end were two cherry pies, lattice tops perfectly formed.

“Aw, that looks fantastic.” Danny said, mouth watering while reaching for a roll. “Ow! What was that for?” He rubbed at a sore spot on his hand where he’d been smacked by a serving spoon.

“Uh hello? We aren’t animals. You can eat sitting down and from a plate you know.” Jasmine sent a light glare Danny’s way before moving to her place at the table.

“Took you both long enough. I thought-”

“-We’d starve before you’d come out of the Hover for sure.” Nick complained finishing off his brother’s sentence with an exaggerated glower.

“Hey sorry, but I can promise you it wasn’t on my end. I wanted dinner an hour ago.” Danny eagerly flopped into a place at the table, plate already in hand. He had his eye on an especially tasty looking roll, until the top from the pot in the center of the table was removed. The pleasant warming smell coming from the container instantly drew his attention. “What’s in there?” He asked just barely resisting the urge to reach for some before time.

This time Vlad answered. “Beef stew. It’s easy to make, makes a whole bunch of left-overs, and is delicious.” He sat much closer to the end with the pies, and passed a plate with a bowl on it towards the middle of the table to get loaded up with food. He smiled as Maddie sat next to him and handed over a glass of ice water.

The rest of the table filled up their bowls and plates with food, and readily dug in.

After a few gulps of stew, he’d woofed down enough to sate his immediate hunger needs, and that left him curious and wanting answers on a few things. And with the adults finally in one spot, he’d be able to get them. “So I heard we don’t have TV, internet, radio, or anything that takes us out of the Stone Age. Please tell me there’s running water, or I’d rather turn myself in.” Danny stuck out his tongue at the thought of anything less than indoor plumbing and a hot shower; that was just barbaric.

A couple chuckles later, Vlad was answering for both him and his wife. “We have both generators for electricity and a water heater that connects to an actual shower you know. Just because the electronic devices that link to the outside world are limited, doesn’t mean you’re living in the Middle Ages Danny. Besides, who told you we don’t own a television? We don’t have cable, _but_ it’ll play VHS and DVDs just fine. Though, I suggest warning someone before trying to fire it up, you might draw too much power from the generator.” He stopped and finished off a roll. “That might not be a problem for too much longer though; I’m getting rid of the old diesel and gas powered generators in between this move and the next.”

“Awesome, you finally figured out how to make the spectral generators work?” Nick piped up from the right of Danny.

“Sure did, and it’ll be replacing most of the generators in Camp. They are a lot more efficient and have basically free fuel besides that. Plus they are easily concealed energy wise, and have no thermal signature, so we can run them all day without worrying about coming up on thermal radar.” Maddie explained.

“Right so, you’ll” Vlad stopped and pointed in Danny’s direction, “be needing a place to sleep for the night. Daniel, I hope you don’t mind-”

“Absolutely not. I’m going to have to bunk up with the wonder twins in a few days for the move; I am _not_ staying with anyone else until then.” Daniel sent a light glare in his parents’ direction. If they thought he was sleeping near the new kid because they were around the same age and both male, they had another thing coming.

“That’s alright, he can just sleep in your tent, and you can sleep outside. I mean that way you don’t have to bunk with anyone.”

“Father are you kidding? It’s hot as an oven out here, I’m not sleeping outside.” Daniel protested.

“I could just sleep outside. I mean it’s not like the tent will be much better.” Danny offered trying to be amicable.

“Oh see look he volunteered.” Daniel pounced on the offer quickly.

“Danny the ‘tents’ are a little more advanced than you’re thinking. They are more like mini-cabins than cloth tents. The make-shift kitchen notwithstanding, since the last one got blasted and the new one isn’t finished yet, most of Camp is made of easily packable expanding self regulating mini-capsules.”

“What my dad is trying to say,” Jasmine interrupted with a roll of her eyes, “is the ‘tents’ are metal boxes with climate control, a whole array of cool electronics, and anything else you can fit inside it. I can’t tell you how my parents’ miniaturization process works, but mine fits a whole book shelf, a bed and dresser, plus like a closet in there. Oh and it has central air and heat, not sure how that’s possible either, but whatever I’m not complaining about it.”

“Oh, so-”

“ _So_ you and Daniel will be sharing one until I can get another one built. That’s on the list after the kitchen and after the conversion of all of generators. I’m guessing about a six week span max.” Vlad studiously ignored a groan of protest from his eldest son. “Half of that will be spent moving, we’ll _all_ be in the RV, so stop your whining Daniel.” He admonished with a gesture of his fork.

“So I’m going to be staying with him?” Danny asked just to be sure.    

“Yes but we’re packing up soon, so it won’t be too long. Maybe a day or two.” Maddie answered after another mouthful of stew.

“How come?” He realized he was asking a bunch of questions, but at this point, they owed him some answers in his opinion.

“We can’t stay anywhere too long. It makes us easier to track down and find. We move every 10-12 weeks, depending on how exposed we are, unless something serious happens before then. In any case, we’ve been here awhile already, and we had an incident in town a week ago. It’s best if we move on before the GSU or Jack tracks us down.” Vlad finished off his first bowl of stew and walked around to get another.

“Though it’s not like there’s very much difference between the two anymore.” Daniel grumbled from next to Danny.

“What’a mean? You guys never give me a straight answer about him. I mean I get that he hunts ghosts, but to call them the same thing-” 

A crack of thunder boomed across the valley floored, followed by another even louder resounding echo as it bounced off the mountain walls. There wasn’t a dark cloud in sight as several more sets of cracking booms, now sounding more like controlled explosions, raced over the valley. In an instant, the sounds changed tones taking on the distinct whirl of mechanical instruments. It was followed by the unmistakable sound of hundreds of people crying at once.

The table’s occupants’ faces had gone from confusion and shock to determination in the blink of an eye. Dinner only half eaten, they leapt up from their positions and began running around camp.

Danny, the only one still sitting at the table, glanced around back and forth between the frenzied activity in Camp and the thundering sounds coming from just a few miles away, reminding him more and more of the GSU he’d heard drop in at Wisconsin only a few hours ago. _It can’t be them, there’s no way they followed us._

“What are you just sitting there for? _Do something_!” Jasmine commanded three boxes balanced in her arms pausing only long enough in her frantic packing to yell in Danny’s direction.

“I-I don’t know where anything goes. I mean, just tell me what to move and I’ll-” Danny was cut off by the sound of a dozen fighter jets sonic booms overhead. He watched in horror was half of the jets with GSU logos on them pulled into a holding pattern over the valley while the other half dived down towards the camp site.

“Danny, get over here right _now_.” Maddie screamed over the combined roar of the jets and the echoing boom of the unloading air ships only a few miles away.

Danny didn't need to be told twice. He ducked underneath the impromptu set of cover just as the jets moved in to carpet bomb the area.

The bombs bounced off the shield covering the outside of Camp with an earth-shaking explosion. The jets pulled up as the other half started strafing the shield with bullets, looking for a weak spot. 

“I don’t understand; how did they find us? It’s not _possible_ that they got passed my spectral cloaking technology, I-” Vlad stopped short; a new thought coming to the front of his mind. “ _You!_ ” He hissed with such conviction it made his children jump. He rounded on Danny before the younger halfa even had a chance to respond. “Have you used your ghost powers at all since you left the Hover?” It was barely even a question at this point. _Leave it to Danny to disobey and do something dangerous._

“I-no!” Danny anxiously looked between the other members of the group and the furious looking Vlad.

“Don’t you lie to me, or I swear I’ll leave-”

“OK! Just a little, wh-when I was walking to the river. The mud was too thick to walk through, it was just a little intangibility, and we were inside the shield it shouldn’t matter because-”

“Oh Fudge ripple apple doodle crunch muffins! You have got to be kidding me!” Vlad let out another string of baked good themed curses before setting up a shield around himself and his family, several strong blasts from the invading GSU men on foot bouncing off of it the moment it was erected.

“Danny why didn’t you tell us? You didn’t think it was _important_?” Maddie pulled a large bazooka from behind her in a stack of weapons, before glaring back over at Danny waiting for an answer.

“I well no! I mean, I don’t know.” He was fumbling for a real response. Between his embarrassment about the real reason and the soldiers moving in around them it was hard to concentrate.      

“Well, look who rolled a natural 20 in the ‘stupid as hell’ stat check.” Jasmine glared over at Danny. _How could he fail to mention something like this?_

“Bu-But Daniel said they energy shield thing blocked ghost signatures!” Danny protested immediately. He wasn’t stupid enough to put everyone in danger, especially not on purpose.

“Yeah you knuckle dragging mouth breather, _if_ your signature is already inside the machine. I mean if it just blocked out all spectral energy, we’d be found in a matter of hours.” Daniel glared over at Danny, eyes a furious red.

“Stop it all of you! This isn’t going to fix anything.” Vlad sighed away the remainder of his anger. “We need to concentrate on getting out of here. There’s only a small amount of the GSU troops here, and the terrain around this area makes it impossible for tanks to get here by road, so they’re going to have to use their air ships to parachute them in. If we pack up everything we need, and get out of here before the majority of the troops arrive with the tanks, we’ll be fine.” He concluded with a strong glare in Danny’s direction. Vlad changed the composition of his shield to bounce the incoming blasts back at the incoming GSU foot grunts.

The grunts took a couple hits back into their ranks before changing their weapons, making the frequency necessary to repeal the attacks different than before.

Vlad was preparing to transform and return fire when, a single peal of laughter echoed off of the valley walls, loud even over the din of the fight, insanity giving it a piercing ringing quality that made everyone within ear shot pause.

“Hello Plasmius.” A deep disturbingly calm voice drawled after its laughter had ended.

“Jack, it’s been too long. Still crazy?” Vlad replied easily from behind his shield.

The Head Commander only passed a disconcerting smile over the length of the field; eyes drawn immediately to Danny’s position.

_Dad?!_   The single word reverberated in his mind, consuming any other thoughts.

“Kill them.” Jack ordered.

**…then seeing a wicked warlock should be a surprise.**


	13. Battle Royale: Part I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And all hell breaks loose...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is in two parts because if it wasn't the chapter would be like 27,000 words long and I decided when I originally wrote it that that's absurd. This needed very little work and so it's out the next day.

_In the irony that has become my life, saying that time stood still would be icing on the cake, but it wouldn’t be a lie. For the first time since I entered this wacky universe, I really got how much **everything** is fucked up. And you know what the crazy part is? The crazy part is it took seeing my Dad ordering my death via the Guys in White reject squadron to do it. Personally, my original bet was on seeing Vlad married to my mom, but hey, sometimes life is full of surprises…like the troops shooting at me for instance…_

The reaction after that single command was immediate. The troops settled on the ground around Vlad’s ghost shield began opening a volley of blasts, hoping to either cut off their escape, or more favorably, destroy the shield all together. The loud booms in the background picked up in speed and volume as the GSU Air Ships hastened to drop off their cargo of men and vehicles. The jets circling over-head in a holding pattern joined their brethren strafing the outside of the shield with a combination of bullets and missiles. All of the GSU went into full attack mode.

Vlad quirked his lips in annoyance at the ecto-weapons currently nipping at his now near red colored shield, before turning away from the troops in front of him and back towards his family. “Alright, I need you all to listen up, I don’t have time to repeat this again,” he yelled over the din of the explosions of battle. “Jasmine, I need you to load up the Hover with everything it can carry, you know what’s most important, just get it done quickly.” He paused to make sure she’d understood before moving on. “Danny, I need you to take the twins and Lizzie over to the RV. Se-”

“What! Wait, why am I on baby-sitting duty? I can totally-”

“ _Snicker-doodles_ Danny, don’t you dare back sass me right now! Do exactly what I say, _no questions._ ” The eldest halfa stared him down until he was sure he would listen. “Now, you get them over to the RV, set up the shield, _full power_ , don’t turn any other systems on, and then wait for a break in the fighting. When you can jump out of the RV without being bombed by jets, head over to the Hover and give your sister some help.” Vlad flicked his eyes down to the youngest members of the group. “You three,” he pointed down when he realized the explosions were growing louder. _That shield won’t hold much longer..._ “Don’t leave the RV for _any reason_. Do you understand me?” He waited a moment longer to watch them nod, before turning to his wife.

“You want me to take the ground troops or the air platforms this time?” She asked, her eyes shining with apprehension for the upcoming battle.

A loud shattering sound echoed throughout the valley as the outer shield broke under the relentless assault of the jets circling above the valley floor. The squadron waiting above the one that just broke the shield dive-bombed for the group’s position, hungry for blood.

“I’ll leave that decision in your capable hands Love.” Vlad tossed a look to his eldest son, “come on Daniel, let’s see if we can’t remind these underlings why you shouldn’t mess with us.”

“Very much agreed.” Daniel announced; a smirk already firmly planted on his lips. He passed a glance in Danny’s direction before turning his back ready to transform. _Why did he call Jasmine your sister?_

With that the group split in separate directions, determination set on their faces.

“Can’t you run any faster?” Nate complained from his position a few feet in front of Danny, racing towards the RV.

“Hey! I’m the one making the ghost shield, _and_ carry Lizzie. The least you can do is not whine at me.” Danny panted while stopping behind a crate for cover. Another blast from the surrounding troops slammed into his shield, earning a grunt.

“Yeah well, the sooner we get to the RV-”

“The sooner you can stop working so hard.” Nick finished his brother’s sentence was a slight glare. He peered over the top of their current hiding place, judging the distance to the RV. They were within a 200 yard sprint, but interspersed between them and the RV was an advancing line of troops. _Not good._ “Hey so Danny, you have ghost powers right?” He couldn’t hide the nervousness in his voice.

“Well I don’t know Nick, why don’t we ask the ghost shield he’s making.” Nate responded with a roll of his eyes.

“Shut up!” Nick snipped back. “What I’m asking is you can transform right? Cause I don’t see any other way around that,” he paused to point out the now 50 feet closer line of soldiers, “group of GSU dorks.”

“Well yeah,” Danny screamed over an especially loud boom in the background, “but that’s not going to help much. The only reason they haven’t just rushed our position is because they can’t get a good read on my energy.”

“No way dumb butt. The reason they haven’t rushed our position is because they don’t know how strong you are. They already know-”

“-Where we are. That’s why they are shooting over here.” Nick finished before rolling his eyes in concert with his brother.

“Duh.” They both announced before a large blast from a bigger ecto-gun cracked Danny’s shield.

Lizzie gripped Danny’s shirt harder and shouted to be heard over another explosion. “Stop fighting! It’s not helping at all.” She jumped when another large crack appeared on the shield. “Can’t you make it stronger?” She asked, a slight tremor of fear wavering her voice.

Danny leaned over the top of the crate and sighted the troops heading for their position. “Yeah in a sec. I think I know how to get through those troops.” Danny narrowed his eyes at the weak point in the line advancing towards them. They had to avoid an obstacle soon, which meant breaking ranks, after that, he’d be able to throw an attack or two, and make a hole big enough for them to run through with much less resistance. He held Elizabeth a little closer and stood on the balls of his feet. “Ok everyone get ready to run.” He announced, slipping one hand out from under the youngest Master.

“What are ya’ going to do?” Nate asked before moving around behind him. He winced as another crack showed up on the shield, Danny obviously focused on something else.

The time traveling teen bounced up from his position behind the crate, firing several small blasts into the ranks of the GSU grunts. To his satisfaction, the troops parted just like he wanted. He waited a few more microseconds before turning to the boys behind him. “Come one run!” He leapt the crate and rushed ahead, charging the shield anew as he made for the line of currently disorganized ghost hunters.

Before the taken aback group of hunters could react, the shielded group ran through the large hole in their ranks. “Fire damn it!” The commander of the group demanded, raising his own weapon to send a few shots the hybrids’ way. His shots bounced off the bright green shield without even a crack showing up. He hissed into his communicator, “This is Agent O. I’m on the rear of the valley attacking a group of hybrids; I need back up out here!” He turned his sights back on the retreating group of kids, dropping his radio in his haste. He never heard the responses from the rest of the commanding officers, screaming for back up of their own.

Danny could hear his heart whooshing in his ears louder than the discordant booms of the unloading troops and the jets bombing every ghost signature or shield they saw. He groaned when another blast hit his shield, realizing the troops behind them had finally reorganized. _That’s going to make this much harder._ He mentally groused. “Nick…how do we know…that the RV…will even be…in one piece?” He panted out from in front of the other boys.

“The shields on all the vehicles went up automatically when the outer shield fell.” Nick replied.

“Yeah, it’d take nothing less than a nuclear bomb to break through those things with none of the other systems online.” Nate added, much less out of breath than Danny.

“If those shields are so good, then how come the outer shield fell?” Danny asked stopped behind one final crate he was using for cover. He shifted the squirming girl in his arms into another much less tiring position while he waited for an answer and the perfect opportunity to run the last few feet.

“It was spread over a much larger area, and it has more than one function! Besides what’s that matter now?” Nate huffed back, sparing a glance behind them to the troops catching up.

“I was just wondering, what made these shields so different, because if they were the same, I’d take my chances with my own.” Danny took a deep breath and prepared to just sprint through the lines of men guarding the RV when a loud crackling sound resonated throughout the valley. It was followed by a thunderous boom near instantaneously, sounding much more like actual thunder than any of the previous explosions in the valley. He swiveled his head left and right, looking for the source of the noise before something tugged on the back of his hoodie.

“Don’t worry about that one, that’s from our side,” Nick explained with another tug. “Come on; let’s get out of here while they’re distracted.” He pointed ahead of the crate to the men running towards the middle of the valley, to the apparent source of the last boom.

The oldest member of group waited another few seconds, to make sure the men had cleared out enough to be safe for them to run. Without another moment’s hesitation, Danny bounded over the top of the crate making a beeline for the RV doors. A few half hearted shots bounced off his shield before they made it to the edge of the dome being maintained by the RV. 

Nick and Nate ran straight through the shielding, happily rushing ahead of Danny, before reaching up for the door to the RV.

“Uh hey guys?” Danny asked nervously to get their attention.

The twins’ attention returned to the outside of the shield, where Danny was sending them a look that was a combination of confusion and worry. “What’re ya’ still doing out there?” Nate mumbled mostly to himself, walking back to the inner edge of the shield. He reached his hand through once before returning it back inside. He frowned at the predicament as his twin got the door to the RV open.

“It’s the shielding technology Nate. Dad installed DNA recognition into it, so the GSU dorks can’t get through remember?” Nick rushed up the few stairs to the driver’s seat of the RV. “Now get in here and help me turn it off for a few seconds so he can get inside. I don’t remember which panel it is…”

Danny set Lizzie down and pressed her through the shield. “Don’t worry about that. Listen, just get in there and set the shield to 100% or something. I need to go help Jazz out and you all are safe inside the shield already, so I’m gone.” Just then another thunder-crack rang through the air, only this time the ground shook as well; he leaned against the shield for balance and glanced back towards the main battle taking place in the middle of the valley. He shifted back around to scream, face nearly flat against the shield, “And what the hell _is_ that?”

Nate leaned out the still open RV door, as his younger sister bounded up the steps. “That is the sound of our Dad kicking butt.” Another crack and earth shaking boom rattled the area. “I sure hope those GSU dorks packed another pair of undies, because they’re going to need them.” He said with a playful grin plastered firmly over his face. He screamed something lost in the sounds of battle back inside to his siblings before looking back at Danny. “Hey, I thought you said you were leaving? Get going already!”

 _Great. I’m getting bossed around by ten year olds._ Danny turned and nearly lost his footing as another earthshaking boom went through the valley floor. He glared lightly in the fight’s general direction before starting off in the direction he thought the Hover had been. _You think Vlad would hold back on the…whatever it is he’s doing._

At the center of the chaos Vlad and his eldest son were giving the world’s finest ghost hunters a run for their money. He’d already destroyed a few air platforms they’d tried to set up, and while Daniel was busy dealing with the pesky jets still bombing the area, the faster boy had volunteered, so Vlad was blasting the levitating engines out from under the remaining platforms. _The sooner I get these destroyed the better._

The platforms were a launch pad for the GSU’s small single person hover vehicles. And while a single one wasn’t anything to worry about, each platform could hold nearly 100 of them, and the GSU had brought ten platforms to the battle. They made for an annoying piece of machinery, and could overwhelm with sheer numbers. Worse, both the platforms and the flyers they carried, among other supplies, had been ghost proofed. While that didn’t make them indestructible, it meant it took a lot more fire power to destroy any one Levitator or platform than it should from the construction materials; at the very least with spectral energy creating the destructive power.

The result had Vlad using one of his most powerful attacks, not wanting to waste time or extra energy; he’d thrown a few well placed bright red lightning bolts into the platforms in the position to take several of them out with their failure.

The plan had moderate success, with one of the floating platforms already fallen, and another failing at that very moment. Unfortunately, the GSU had moved all of the remaining power in their shields to protect the remaining engines from further attacks. The shields were strong enough to blunt some of the damage away, and made it necessary to use more than one shot to take out a single engine. At the moment, they’d stabilized the third one from falling, and were launching their smaller single person crafts off of its bow.

Vlad cursed under his breath as the first wave of flyers made for his position. He didn’t have time for this nonsense. The group of craft zoomed towards his location before a large chunk of flying metal slammed into their formation. It took out half of the machines before ramming into the earth, straight into a contingent of troops on the ground, crushing several of the men beneath it. He looked over towards the area where the metal chunk had started from with interest. “What took you so long?” He questioned blasé in the face of the mounting chaos beneath him.

“Hey, next time you can take the baker’s dozen of fighter jets and I’ll throw energy attacks at the stationary targets.” Daniel flew to a stop next to his father, surveying the damage his last attack had done. For the last few minutes, he’d been out-maneuvering the pilots of the GSU’s Air Division. While they might have been the best fighter pilots in the country, nothing beat having the natural sense of flight that came with being able to do it yourself. They also had a much less responsive and larger system to work with, so he’d made quick work of the first three planes without breaking a sweat.

The next ten had come with more difficulty. The pilots suddenly woke up and remembered they could coordinate their attacks, and had done so. Using one group to try and pin down or herd him towards another group firing at him with bullets.

 _Not like that helped them all that much._ Daniel noted smugly. He’d been able to pit them against one another, using their weapons to take out other planes, or just plain ran the jets into each other. Finally, with only two or three planes left, they had begun to retreat until more reinforcements arrived from the still disemboweling Air Ships. The hybrid had grabbed the closest plane and ripped a wing off, watching the now broken plane crash into the ground below. With a good piece of metal to work with, he’d tossed it back towards the main part of the battle, hoping to take out some more troops with it. The plan worked beautifully, the repurposed wing crashing into the first wave of Levitators like a freight train, before coming to a rest on top of some of the GSU’s ground troops. 

“Yes how about that? I’ll scare off a bunch of incompetent GSU pilots and _you_ can try and get past their level nine shields.” Vlad raised one of his own as a group of missiles from the platform closed in on his position. They exploded against the dark pink dome, not even making a dent, clouding the immediate area in near black choking smoke.

“Whatever. What do you say I take the ground troops and you blast some more easy targets?” Daniel offered setting his sights on a group of men trying to reinforce the troops already headed towards his mother. Without waiting for a response, he dove out of the smoke cloud and fired a few green blasts at the troops below.

“I thought you wanted the easy targets this time Daniel?” Vlad teased at his retreating form before taking stock of the situation around him. He looked behind him towards the edge of the fight where the RV was sitting. _Good, the kids are safely inside and Danny is running over to help Jasmine. Though God knows why he hasn’t transformed yet._ The smoke was clearing, and he needed to move now if he still wanted to use surprise to his advantage. He shot straight out of the remaining smoke headed for the advancing group of Levitators, wanting to cut them off before they reached any further into the valley.

Meanwhile, Daniel was hovering invisible over the group of men currently continuing to his mother’s position.

She was, as usual, single-handedly holding off a contingent of soldiers, but that was likely to change if the rest of the men heading towards her position got there.

Daniel frowned at the number of men rushing to her position, and decided to get a little creative. He hadn’t tried to use these powers on someone in months, and it hadn’t gone so well that last time, but at the very least it would delay the arrival of the newer GSU grunts. He closed his eyes and concentrated on sending his energy into the space around him. He would have to drop invisibility in a few more seconds, so he made use of the extra time to center his thoughts. The buzz of the humid summer air faded as the much larger signatures of the men below him took over. He mentally reached out for the warm thrum he felt coming from them, opting for the much more tired group of men already fighting his mother. Daniel took a deep breath and grabbed at the person shaped coalescence of water in his mind…

She’d been giving their opponent as much hell as she could when she felt something ice cold wrap around her body. She knew instinctively from years in the GSU that it was spectral energy; she just didn’t know where it was coming from. The oldest hybrid was engaged with the Levitators, the mysterious one they had tracked this far hadn’t even shown up, and 2nd Priority had disappeared from the battle after scaring the first wave of fighter jets back to base. Moreover, the energy felt like it was coming from _inside_ her. _But that’s impossible._ She concluded, and tried to lift her gun to shake off the energy around her, only to find she couldn’t.  Now panicking, she struggled to move her legs, shake her arms, to do anything but stand frozen stiff _-when did I stopped moving-_ ; to no avail. She shot a glance to the men next to her, her eyes the only thing she did have control over, and found him surrounded by a deep red aura. He was just as frozen in place as her, and from the look in his eyes, he had no idea what was going on either. Her mind went numb with fear as her limbs began moving of their own accord, hoisting her gun back into a shooting position from hanging limply at her side. To her dismay, the rest of her squad members did the same, falling into a single file line behind an outcropping of crates, backs turned to their original target. She had just enough time to pray her shots would miss, before everything went to hell.

The approaching group of fighters settled onto their haunches as a sudden volley of bright green fire halted their advance. “What the hell?” The commanding officer growled as another quick set of shots was fired towards their position. _If I didn’t know any better, I’d think they were our own weapons firing at us._ He looked towards his three o’clock where the Plasmius creature was tearing through their air support, before facing forward again. “Agent Q I need you to radio for more air support, I need some eyes over the back of that section of debris. I want to know what’s firing at us!” He screamed as several of his men were taken out by well placed shots. Abruptly, the firing stopped and a group of GSU soldiers rushed his position. He grimaced when they weren’t deterred by weapons’ fire, and ordered his remaining officers to shot to kill. _If that red light is any indication they’re as good as dead anyway._

The last few minutes had been terrifying. Despite having no control over her actions, she’d fired into her own reinforcements and watched as several of her men were gunned down for refusing to follow orders. Worse, she had no sense of pain, so the injuries she was taking didn’t even slow her, or the other controlled GSU soldiers down. She finally reached the edge of the incoming line, and pinned the other commander below her. She had her blaster point directly at his skull, finger twitching over the trigger. It was taking everything she had to resist pulling it. She knew the man below her; they ate lunch together every day. She could hear his officers screaming for her to drop her weapon. _If only they knew how much strength it took not to shot him…_

“Sorry Kate, I’ll send your stuff to Jim when we get back.” He lifted his bazooka to her chest and squeezed the trigger, blasting a hole clean through to the other side. He shifted her corpse off of his body, and sent a fierce glare to the creature that had all but killed a good friend of his. “You’re dead you piece of spectral shit!” He raised his weapon, flicked it to full power, and sent a large green blast Daniel’s way.

 Daniel had just enough time to register the power behind the attack before it closed on his position. He closed his eyes and teleported a few feet away, the blast had been close enough to singe him despite missing by a few feet. _That was close…_ “Well someone looks a little upset.”

“Shut up you-”

“-Though if I were you,” Daniel interrupted, “I’d be more concerned with my original target.” Daniel watched as the commanding officer’s face scrunched into a confused frown before a hail of ecto-weapon blasts zipped into his group of men. He smirked as his mother dove back into the fight, easily routing the surprised and distracted GSU men, taking several more out before they could even re-group. “You’re welcome!” He screamed down at her when he saw her wave, before shooting off to take care of the new jets flying towards the valley from right over the edge of the mountains. _And I was going to give Jasmine some help too. I hope that kid knows what he’s doing…_

By this time Jasmine was almost finished loading up the Hercules Hover with the needed supplies. She wasn’t sure how they were going to get it out of the valley, someone would have to fly it, and with all the jets around that wasn’t advisable, but she trusted her father to figure it out. The majority of the GSU men had been occupied with chasing down either her parents or Daniel, considering they’d been making the most “noise”, but a few had come her way when they realized what she was up to. The red head was currently fighting off a new team of men, the other group having fallen to her sharp shooting and the shield around the Hover. This group, however, was proving more difficult to fight, and worse, there was another one coming up behind _them_. All in all, although she was nearly done with her task, she could use a little backup herself. Jasmine groaned as another one of her weapons signaled the batteries were running low. The majority of the replacements or chargers were already packed away, and she needed some guns to defend herself. “Come on Danny, the least you can do to make up for all of this is show up when I need you.” She didn’t blame the kid for not being so forthcoming with all of the details of his life. Despite the fact the GSU was the biggest threat to either of their lives, her family had in short order pointed enough weapons at him to give any sane person pause about sharing intimate life details. _Like why you’re a half ghost or how you know who our parents are._ She grimaced as she slid the last charged battery into place. _Any time now…_ She thought firing a few volley shots over the top of crates she wasn’t planning on packing up. To her surprise, a much larger shot was fired in between both groups, shocking the GSU out of returning fire. “Took long enough!” She exclaimed as Danny settled in next to her.

“Yeah, you’re welcome.” He answered looking around behind him at the stuff scattered around the Hover. “How much more of that stuff do you need to pack?” He wanted to avoid fighting as much as possible, mostly because everyone around him was acting like this was a war zone, shooting to kill, tossing grenades, and everything betwixt. He risked a glance over the edge of the crates, and quickly ducked down when several large green blasts headed his way. He didn’t mind fighting; he spent most of his day at home stuffing ghosts into the Fenton Thermos, but the _way_ everyone else was fighting had him worried. _I’m not killing anyone._ He determined. If he was honest, that seemed to be the only way to fight back against the GSU at the moment.

“Just two more crates, but they are back over the line where the soldiers have entrenched themselves. I need you to force them back so I can get those crates and we can get out of here.” She explained while firing two more shots over his shoulder.

“Hey! Watch where you aim that thing.” Danny complained while rubbing at the warm spot in between his neck and shoulder where the energy had zipped though. He passed one more glance over the crates, to gage the closeness of the GSU line, before turning back around to Jasmine. He caught her eye and counted back from ten on his hands, mouthing off each number as he went.

 _Three…_ a blast took out the top half of the crate.

 _Two…_ Danny turned to block any other incoming attacks, shielding Jasmine with his body.

 _One…_ Jasmine turned and ran for the safety of another set of boxes, the one they’d been standing behind of had been completely destroyed.

 _“Ma’am, the mysterious hybrid has just appeared on our radar!”_ Jillian heard squawk out of her radio. She halted her groups advance with a hand over her shoulder and pressed a button on the radio integrated into her lapel. “Where is it?” She demanded harshly into the hi-tech walkie talkie. _“It appeared over in the northern quadrant, next to where the troops were engaging Jasmine Fenton.”_ The second in command mulled over the information for a few moments longer before turning to motion her men towards the mystery hybrid’s position. They needed to capture him most of all. While the other hybrids were on record, at the very least they knew _how_ they came to exist, that one’s appearance was more than a slight crimp in their knowledge base. Jillian turned to follow her men over to the area when a voice caught her attention above the din of the battle. _Interesting…I’m sure my men can handle the girl while I worry about her mother._

The former ghost hunter was making progress against her section of the GSU troops. She’d already taken out several of their Levitators, and a few dozen troops on her own. Unfortunately, it looked like they’d come prepared for Armageddon this time, so no matter how many troops she knocked down, it seemed like five more showed up to replace them. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out her retractable bo-staff, medium sized ecto-gun balanced in her left hand. Luckily enough, she shot with her off-hand almost as well as with her dominant hand. She popped three approaching GSU soldiers in the chest before depressing the button to extend her favorite melee weapon. _Come to momma boys._ Maddie slung her gun onto her hip before griping the staff in both hands, ready to whip it around into a few skulls. To her surprise, her opponents had stopped advancing, eyeing her with a wary expression on their faces. She took the reprieve to spy her husband and eldest son. _Vlad’s keeping the majority of the Levitators at bay and Daniel is fighting off another squadron of jets. I hope Jasmine’s almost done._  She settled into her stance and eyed the still stalled GSU drones. Suddenly, the reason for their hesitation became clear. “Oh, so what happened to last time has gotten around has it? Well don’t worry; I’ll be gentler this time.” She leaned off of her heels and onto the balls of her feet, ready to spring at the first person who twitched wrong. Someone to her left wriggled, shifting to reach for another weapon, so she took a step in that direction and swung…

He hadn’t meant to set off the virtual martial arts bomb in their midst, but all it took was one twitch and they were as good as bruised in any case. He’d reached for a knock out grenade, hoping to end the fight before it started, only to have it inadvertently begin.

She’d knocked out two of the people standing around her before they could even raise their guns. To even the odds, she’d planted her staff into the earth and catapulted herself over the top of the circle, being surrounded would make the fight much harder. A few of the fighters had woken up and fired a shot or two in her direction in the air, but she’d already nearly landed by then. She landed on one leg, and pivoted, settled her other leg into the ground right when her weapon made contact for full effect. She heard a satisfying crack, as the soldier’s firing arm was taken out, and moved into a defensive stance. Everyone had recovered from her first strike by then, and turned to fire at her. The shots bounced off of her reinforced ecto-steel staff as she twirled it to make a shield against the blasts. Maddie dived forward during a slight break in the firing pattern and caught one closest GSU member under the chin. She turned and used the other end to smash the person closest to him in the gut, before twisting to catch a final person across the back of the neck, knocking her out instantly.

 _Six down, six more to go._ She thought determination reading in her every feature. The mother of five was back on the defensive, easily deflecting the blasts off her weapon, sending several back to the men who were firing. Opting to use their weapons’ fire against them further, she concentrated on reflecting the blasts back towards their targets. Four blasts zipped back to their sources, and she was left with only the commanding officer and one of his underlings. The brazen girl rushed at Maddie, baton from her belt raised to counter her staff. The former hunter effortless parried and disarmed the soldier in one move before catching the back of her skull behind her ear with the other end of her weapon. Her opponent crumpled to the ground in an unconscious heap while she faced off against the commander. At the last second she sensed a blast headed for her back. She twisted out of the way and the shot slammed into the officer’s chest instead of hitting her. She continued through the motion, drawing her gun off of her opposite hip, pressing it to full power, using the heavy staff to balance her shift in motion.   

“Maddie.” A cold calm voice rang through the sounds of battle. The world around her had faded away ages ago to her. Almost as soon as she’d seen the other woman fighting, the rest of the world no longer mattered. She held her weapon solidly pointed at the chest of her opponent, willing the woman to so much as blink so she could fire.

“Jillian. How long has it been?” She inquired gun pointed directly over the other woman’s heart, staff still balanced in her right hand.

“Too long Madeline, too long.”  

 

* * *

 

 

Nate and Nick watched with a grin on their faces while the GSU surrounding the RV tried to break through the shield, this time with a rocket launcher. The projectile bounced off of the shield; detonating only a few tenths of a second after that. The grunts outside tried to send several grenades at the shield at once. This only earned a loss of more ammunition and a set of rolled eyes from the twins.

“You’d think they’d stop trying by now, and go reinforce somewhere else where they can actually make a difference.” Nick noted pressing his face against the glass to distort it into a funny taunting face.

“Yeah maybe, or maybe these are all of the rejects that are too stupid to be of any use anywhere else.” Nate watched in muted humor as another rocket was sent into the shield. It also deflected off the shield and exploded; he passed a glance to the power panel for the shield. _Still 100%. This is so boring._

Nick pulled his face away from the glass long enough to say, “Whatever, I just wish everyone else would hurry up. I’m sick of sitting around doing nothing. Hey, doesn’t this thing have cameras?” He moved away from the glass as another grenade hit and walked over to another set of panels at the front of the RV. 

“Yeah? But so what?” Nate asked while joining his brother in the front seat. The front of the RV looked a lot more like high tech monitoring station and less like a car.

“Because then we can send out the cameras, and see how close everyone else is to getting their butts back over here.” Nick depressed a few buttons on the largest control panel, in no particular order, trying to get the set of mobile cameras to release. He was only rewarded with the windshield wipers turning on, followed by the headlights, and then the weapon’s system coming online.

“Wait stop!” His brother screamed when the weapons highlighted on the main display screen in front of him. He scrunched up his face in concentration trying to pick out what he wanted. He thought the cameras might be in this section of the computer.

Nick caught onto the other boy’s antics, but instead selected a pair of large missiles. “How about these?” he offered while pressing down on the touch screen.

 _Rocket Launchers activated._ A computerized voice said from the console in front of them before two medium sized rockets shot from the top of the RV. The projectiles flew through the shield and directly into the midst of the surrounding GSU. The flying bombs had the designed effect, quickly blasting and throwing earth out of the way of their detonation. GSU soldiers dove left and right out of the blast zone.

“Oops. I didn’t think the screens were that sensitive.”

“Whatever. Let’s find those cameras before those GSU dorks recover.” Nate responded hitting another set of commands into the control panel. The weapons section shut down and was replaced by the communications section. That was swiftly followed by the espionage section, filled with hacker’s codes and eavesdropping technology, as the boys clicked through the RV’s systems.

“Wouldn’t the moe-bill cameras be with the spy stuff?” Lizzie offered from the mid-section of the RV.

“Hey great idea!” the twins enthusiastically answered before switching back over to the “spy” section to look for the mentioned equipment. In a flash, they had zeroed in on the flying recorders.

They popped out of the top of the RV, floating for a second as the video processors came online, before racing off onto the rest of the battlefield.

“You think four of those things will be enough?”

Nate frowned over his brother’s question before answering, “Yeah why wouldn’t it be?”

“What if some of them blow up?” Lizzie suggested.

The twins shared a look before watching the cameras fly off towards the platforms at the other end of the valley. They started broadcasting their findings back to the RV’s display system. The intensity of the fighting wiped any worry of destroyed property from the kids’ minds.

“Yeah whatever, just as long as they last long enough to show us what’s going on I don’t care…Hey look! There’s mom.” Nate pointed to the screen, where the second of four cameras had pinpointed one of the main fights.

Maddie shifted to the left, settling her feet and centering herself for the battle ahead. In that instant, the fight had begun. She continued the motion, sliding to the left to avoid the ecto-weapon fire heading her direction. The green blast soared past her where her shoulder had been as she returned fire, to keep her opponent on their toes. She knew from experience Jillian was too fast and smart to be pinned with energy attacks, even from close range, but it did give the other woman something else to break her concentration, and for that she was grateful. Jill was one of the few people Maddie had ever fought that was actually a challenge, and with nearly a half an hour of intense fighting under her belt already, she needed the extra edge the distracting fire provided.

Jill cart wheeled to the right, out of the range of the coming bright green blasts before reaching back and taking out another weapon. The second in command knew that while her adversary was a good shot, though not an ace unlike herself, she preferred melee combat against human opponents. Worse, she was one of the best at it; so her greatest chance came in making her keep her distance and using her superior shooting skills to her advantage. Better than that, she had back-up all around her, so all she had to do was hem her into another group of GSU and the fight would be over. _However, that’s easier said than done._ Jillian concluded as another of her well-aimed shots deflected off of Maddie’s staff. The other woman had taken to blocking her shots with one hand and shooting her own with the other. _Damn it…_ It was time for a change of tactics.

The former ghost hunter narrowed her eyes and charged her opponent’s position, wanting to close some of the distance that had developed between them. Space only served to give Jill an advantage since it made using her bo-staff for anything but blocking impossible. Her feet bite into the dirt, and she deflected several shots as she charged. She quickly cut the length of space between them in half. Dodging around another fiery green shot she couldn’t deflect, Maddie slid into a fighting stance that would more easily take advantage of her greater melee skills. Her eyes narrowed when she caught her opponent raise her other hand to fire and chose to block the burning hot blast with her own gun, sacrificing it to avoid giving up ground. She swirled her staff around her body to give it a good amount of force, and slammed it into Jillian’s arm, knocking her un-raised weapon clean out of her hand.

Cursing and bring her unharmed arm to bare, Jillian fired a series of shots on the run, already twisting away and to the right to avoid being hit by the staff a second time. She watched Maddie hiss as a shot grazed her shoulder at close range and another barely missed her left thigh. Her opponent rolled and bounced back into a defensive stance, ready to avoid anymore coming ecto-weapons fire. The blonde woman steadied herself for the rest of the fight, watching her foe closely as she took stock of her injuries. _Some small bruises and burns from close calls. But the main problem is that hit to the arm, I think she may have fractured my forearm with that one, but I know for sure my wrist is broken._ Jill frowned as the new information flitted across her mind. A fractured forearm was no big deal, she could set and stabilize it in a few minutes if given the reprieve during battle, but a broken wrist would take that entire side out of commission when it came to weapons wielding. It wasn’t like she was in poor shape there, she could shoot equally well with both hands, but she’d rather have two guns to point at Maddie than one. She passed a glanced around the space immediately around her; the area where they were fighting was conspicuously empty. A look to the sky answered her question why, when she spotted both of the oldest hybrids giving the troops closest to them hell. _Looks like 2 nd Priority finished with those jets again, my time is almost up._ Her troops would need reinforcement and her guidance soon, she didn’t have time to waste on this fight for much longer. _Why isn’t she attacking?_ Jill wondered before bringing up her remaining gun to restart their clash.

Maddie for her part had taken the few seconds pause to take mental stock of her family’s positions. _Vlad, fighting off the last of the Levitators, and he’s knocked down another Platform. Daniel’s giving him some help with the ground troops. From the sound of it the twins and Lizzie are safe inside the RV. So that leaves Jasmine…_ Her thoughts trailed off as her wrist began to ache and throb. She hadn’t taken the shot directly, but having the gun wrenched out of her hand like that still hurt. Despite that, it was likely only a bad sprain, and she needed to focus if she was going to keep the other woman so tied up that she couldn’t help the other GSU fight. She took a deep breath when she saw Jillian raise her gun; it would be harder to use her staff with a stiff and sore wrist, but she’d manage. She blocked the first shot, and the fight resumed.

The GSU officer backed away from Maddie’s approaching form, running backwards nearly as fast as she could forward, to preserve the space needed to keep her weapon’s fire effective. She decided to move the fight closer to the rest of her men; so she spun on her heel and raced towards the rest of the soldiers, opting to show her opponent her back to make up for it in speed. Jill heard the other woman scream something from over her shoulder and dropped to the side with just enough time to avoid the blast. It sailed uselessly to her left, not even singing her clothing. She stopped and refaced Maddie, having gained a nearly fifty yards with her short sprint. Still, it wasn’t close enough to draw the attention of her subordinates or to really close in on the other fight, so she was on her own. _Ok, you want hand to hand combat honey? You got it._ Jill decided before rushing the other woman’s position full speed.

Startled by the abrupt change in tactics, Maddie skidded to a stop as Jill closed the last of the space between them. She had just enough time to plant her feet before a solid punch was sent her way. She blocked it with the middle of her staff and pressed her advantage, moving the staff to the other side of her arm and pushing it away, hoping to throw the other woman off balance. To no avail, as Jillian only moved with the parry, grasped a hold of the staff, and brought one of her legs up for a body shoot against her. Thrown off balance she had no way of blocking the attack. To compensate, she rolled with the kick, reducing some of the effect by following the motion.

The two of them, still conjoined by their hold on the staff, rolled to the right landing back on their feet, staff still in hand. They fought over control briefly before it landed level between them both around chest level.

Jill glared over the top of staff and into the auburn haired woman’s eyes. “Give it up sweetie; I’ve got five years of youth and ten years of expert training on you.” She hissed as the weapon was twisted from her grasp, arms crossing uncomfortably, when Maddie flipped to the left still holding the staff. The ghost hunter settled back into an offensive stance and prepared to charge her again. _I **have** to get that staff out of her hands._ The GSU officer raced forward once again, only this time she stopped on a dime, avoiding the other woman’s attack. She ducked underneath it, crossing into the space between her body and the staff, and destroying her weapon’s defensive capabilities. She placed as much force as she could behind her next attack, bringing her elbow across into the now open space, and heading directly for Maddie’s head. She nearly screamed in frustration as the woman before her dropped back; falling down onto her back as the blow meant for her temple sailed cleanly through the air. Jill grunted as her opponent’s feet planted against her unguarded stomach, leaving her breathless, and tossing her a few feet away onto her back.

Maddie continued through the motion, flipping back onto her feet, using her hands to help back hand spring back into a standing position. She’s barely landed before she was taking off fleet footed for the last place she’d seen the other woman land, trying to press her advantage to the fullest. She landed on top of the still prone woman, pressing the staff into her neck as she struggled with her on the ground. “Dear, if you’ve been trained by the GSU for ten years it might explain a few things, though certainly not the crows’ feet, and you were calling me old. Come on hun, are these digs really necessary? Or maybe you’re just still upset about Amity four years ago.”

“Shut it Madeline. You know as well as I do that this,” Jill paused to press her palms against the staff with more gusto, forcing the other woman back into a sitting position over her, “is all your fault.” She grit her teeth and planted her feet into the earth, forcing Maddie off of her. “If only you realized what you had, then none of this would be necessary.” The second in command rolled to the left, listening to the whistle of the staff as it stung the dirt where she had just been laying. The next attack came quickly, and the one after that with even more speed. _Oh she’s pissed now._ She realized with glee.

“This is _not_ my fault. I’m not responsible for how Jack chooses to take things, nor am I responsible for his obsession with killing every ghost he comes across.” Maddie whipped the staff around once more, one handed, as she reached for another weapon, this time an ecto-gun. She openly glared into the space her opponent left in the wake of her expert dodging. If only she would stand still long enough to land a hit, she’d show her what she _really_ thought about her baseless assertions. “Besides, I’d say your dislike of me is more personal. What’s the matter honey? He still not biting after all these years?” She asked aiming the small ecto-gun at Jill’s constantly moving form.

“Oh and I have you to blame for it, _if_ that’s what I was actually after. Congratulations, between your own children and my commanding officer it seems you have a knack for creating monsters.” She cheered internally as the other woman’s face flushed darker with anger and defensive pride. “Oh but don’t take my word for it, _sweetheart_ , just take a look around you. Most mothers would be terrified and disgusted by the thought they gave birth to something non-human but apparently, just like with Jack, you relish the idea of making something so perverted. I mean honestly, I don’t know what’s more disturbing. The fact you left a good man for a heartless twisted inhuman monster, or the fact you weren’t satisfied until the man you left was just like him.” Jill screamed as a well aimed blast caught her along her already injured forearm.

“Shut the hell up.” Maddie closed in on her injured quarry, ready to end this fight right then. There was one thing she couldn’t stand, and that was anyone talking about her family. Just as the gun whined and whirled, ready to blast a hole clear through her opponent’s skull, the air began to buzz. She gasped as the space around her filled up with energy she could recognize in her sleep. There was a subtle red hue in the air wrapped around what she realized was the humidity in the atmosphere around her. Maddie snapped her head around to where she heard a large rush of water coming from. _Daniel!_ She only took her attention off of her opponent for a moment, but that’s all it took…

Jillian rushed the other woman standing over her the instant she took her focus off of her. She reached up and grabbed the gun pointed at her, and began struggling with her for it, trying to at least throw the older woman off balance. She succeeded in firing off a few shots in the fight over the weapon before she noticed what had distracted Maddie so effectively herself. There was a veritable twister of water headed for the last of their floating platforms! The red tinged water moved like a natural water spout, building as it went; adding water to its size from seemingly nowhere. Jill refocused her attention on her opponent only to find her more interested in the sky near the quickly growing twisting wall of water. _What are you looking for?_ The ghost hunter wondered as she wrenched the gun away from Maddie’s body. Jillian watched as the older woman withdrew another of her weapons and pointed it up towards her. _Too slow…_ She was about to fire, when at the last moment; she spotted what Maddie had been searching for. _Is that what you were so concerned about?_ She realized with a piece of wicked intent coiling in her belly. She’d take care of _him_ after his mother.

The two of them stood stock still in a reoccurrence of the Mexican stand-off from before, with each of them now more interested in the water raging now only a few hundred yards away than each other.

 Jill waited for the woman in front of her to shift her attention back towards the teenaged ghost floating not too far off, before she made her move. She fired a blast that forced Maddie to block with her staff and retreat as well. “Boys, that’s 2nd Priority making that attack, shot him out of the sky!” She barely had enough time to send that command through her communications link before she was tackled to the ground. And from the look in the mother’s eyes, she’d just made a command she’d be paying for in blood.

Across the valley, Jasmine had just loaded the first of the last two needed crates into the Hover. Unfortunately, her back up was having trouble fighting off the GSU grunts at the moment. It wasn’t as if he wasn’t strong enough to make a dent, it just seemed to her that Danny was holding back for some reason. _It’s like he actually cares what happens to these bastards. You would think being shot at and nearly killed three times in two days would convince him to stop pulling his punches._ Jasmine ducked behind another set of boxes, just feet from her final goal. She just needed to move forward a just a little more, and for once it looked like luck was on her side; Danny had forced the soldiers back a just enough to make sneaking to the last box possible. _Let’s just hope he can keep them up there._ She catapulted over the top of the boxes; her landing blending effortlessly into a hard sprint. The red haired girl wrapped her hands around the outside of the crate and hoisted it up preparing to race with it back to the Hover when something caught her eye and her ears.

The same twisting wall of water that had caught Maddie and Jill’s attention had now grown to twice its original size. The roar it was creating was audible over even the loud blasts and explosions of the raging battle around the valley floor. Several groups of GSU men had stopped to gaze at it in a combination of awe and fear as the water barreled towards the last of the floating platforms and the rest of their backup.

Jasmine managed to put the ghost hunter’s distraction to good use; running right past the stock still officers and back towards the Hover; already having discerned the origin of the impressive sight. _I hope you know what you’re doing little brother._ She saddled up to the door of the Hercules beetle shaped flying tank and hopped inside to set the last of the crates inside when she heard something rather large slam into the outside of the shield.

“You almost done in there?” A frantic voice shouted from the other side.

“That’s the last of it! I just need to signal that I’m done, and you can escort me back to the RV.” Jasmine stuck her head back out of the door to answer before doing a last check of the inside of the vehicle to be absolutely sure she had everything she needed. With a decisive nod, she stepped out of the Hover and turned to shout for Danny to take her back…only to spot Daniel being shot out of the sky. “NO!” Without even thinking about it; she dove back inside the flying contraption for a weapon.

“What?” Danny questioned pressing himself back against the shield. His lack of ability to pass through them was beginning to wear on his nerves.

The eldest Masters’ sibling stopped in her tracks and turned back around to the still open Hover door. “Danny! Those GSU bastards just hit Daniel with a _huge_ blast. I can’t get to him as quickly as you can. I need you to go over there and give him some back up.”

“But what about you? There are agents everywhere!” Danny sent another medium sized ecto-blast into the charging line of GSU men, trying to wave them off a few moments more.

“I’ll be safe behind the shield. I’ll wait until you get back with my brother, now go already!” Jasmine huffed and pointed back towards the forested area of the valley where she’d seen her brother land.

Danny was about to argue otherwise when several more large ecto-weapons blasts bounced off the shield effortlessly. “Alright! But I’m coming back here right after that…” He conceded with a frown; heading as fast as he could fly towards Daniel’s likely crash site.

 

* * *

 

 

 _Wow my head hurts. I mean, I’m sure it didn’t hurt this much a few minutes ago, when I…when I was…um…what **was** I doing actually?_ Daniel wondered holding his still whirling head in one hand while pushing himself into a sitting position with the other. A moderate sized boom snapped him out of his dazed revere as he remembered the battle at hand. The teenaged hybrid hissed as he forced himself into standing. His middle felt like it was on fire. _Bruised, badly, but nothing that’ll kill me. My head is scraped up pretty bad, but no fractures…and I’m just about out of energy. Great._ By the time Daniel finished taking stock of his internal injuries and reopened his eyes he found himself encircled by at least 15 GSU soldiers. _No I’m wrong, it’s **fantastic**._ “So, I’m guessing you’re not here to play field medic?”

“2nd Priority ecto-entity Daniel Masters, you are under arrest by order of the Government Spectral Unit Field Branch. You have the right to submit quietly and to avoid _most_ pain and discomfort.” The acting ranking commander declared with a self indulgent smile planted firmly on his lips.

“Might I suggest instead, you all taking a stroll through Hades? I hear it’s wonderful this tim-” the rest of his sentence was cut short by jumping to the right of the first of a flurry of blasts. The ghost powered teen tried to rush through the line of men and into the bushes directly on the other side. To no avail, the three men immediately in his path shouldered together and were able to withstand even his ghost strength enhanced attempt to tackle through them. Before he knew it, they’d thrown him back onto the center of the circle where he was forced to erect a hasty green toned shield. _Oh this is not good…_ Daniel panted under the strain of keeping the shield up against the constant weapons’ fire.

Suddenly, one of the low ranked underpaid grunts got an idea. He lobbed a grenade from his belt towards the ghost hybrid in the middle of their group. “Fire in the hole!” he cried as he and his comrades dove out of the way of the resulting explosion and for cover. The grenade had been primarily designed to harm ghosts, but a small amount of the raw blow back from the blast was still dangerous to humans.

The last of Daniel’s strength gave out under the assault of the ectoranium laced explosive and his shield fell with a loud crack like the shattering of a dozen mirrors. His head spun with renewed vigor as the exertion only exasperated what was likely a bad concussion. Hs formerly pain glazed eyes hardened diamond sharp; turning icy at the sight of the barrel of the gun pointing right at his forehead.

“I gave you an opportunity to come quietly ghost. Now, according to every procedure, I’m authorized to use _any_ force necessary to subdue you. And, well, you _are_ the second most dangerous ghost in existence.” The acting commander hissed out with a sadistic grin, as deadly as the weapon he welded, on his face. “I’m thinking I should take out your legs first. You know,” he paused to laugh, “in case it tries to run again.” He addressed the rest of the sentence to the men around him. He pointed the gun down towards his newest target, the ecto-entity’s right leg. “Now, let’s see if your blood really _is_ green like the rest of your-” A pained cry cut off the rest of his sentence as he, and some of his men, was tossed half a dozen feet from in front of the hybrid.

Before anyone could react, someone flew down into the center of the circle, and another much brighter green ecto-shield went up around Daniel. “Looks like you could use some help.” Danny suggested hand out in a perfect mirror of the other hybrid a few hours ago.

“Wow. Anyone ever tell you that you have perfect timing?” Daniel pondered with a grunt as he struggled his way to his feet with Danny’s help. He leaned over trying to catch his breath, hands placed firmly on his knees. The sound of his tired pants was so loud he almost missed the other boy’s question. “I’m fine. I’ve just been fighting too much today. I mean I think I killed about 20 jets, a couple dozen ground troops. I even took out a tank earlier back at the mansion. I’m bushed!”  He paused to catch his breath and center his thoughts. _I need to summon up enough energy to fight a little while longer. Then I can collapse for at least a week._ The weakened fighter heard Danny’s voice again above the ringing in his ears. “I’ll be fine just give me a minute or so to make some more energy and we can get back to kicking these losers back to Mordor. Cool?” Daniel transformed and ignored the jag of pain shooting through his chest. He didn’t really listen to the other hybrid’s reply having turned his focus to the process of temporarily increasing his core’s energy production.

Danny for his part concentrated on maintaining the shield against the barrage of attacks the soldiers were now lobbing at it. He had a lot more energy than his other worldly twin, however, so the task was much easier than it had been for him. Still, the GSU members seemed to be signaling for back-up and with another group of nearly a dozen soldiers having just arrived Danny wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep this up. “Hey I hate to break your concentration or something, but how much longer is this going to take?” _I’ve been asking that a lot lately…_ Another dozen shots slammed into his shield before the halfa had even finished his sentence forcing him to refocus his attention to holding up the shield.

“Just another few minutes…I’m more drained than I thought.” Daniel distractedly answered. “Just make the radius of the shield smaller.” He concluded simply before working on gathering the last of his energy up for the rest of the battle.

“Oh yeah sure; I’ll just do that while two dozen Guys in White rejects continue to throw bombs and shots at us. Yeah that’s no problem at all.” Danny replied with the tone of someone rolling their eyes.

“God and my family calls _me_ sarcastic. Ok wise guy I’m finished.” Daniel took one more deep breath before opening his eyes and preparing to fly off at top speed. He glanced over the tree tops and spotted a bright red flare glowing off towards the main part of the battle. “Hey,” he elbowed the other boy in the ribs to get his attention. “That flare is from Jasmine. It means the Hover’s ready, so that’s where we’re headed after we lose these guys. So on the count of three drop the shield and get over there as fast as you can.”

“You know, I’ve been taking orders from people like my age or younger _all_ day, and I can honestly say I’m getting sick of it.” Danny chanced a moment to act childish and lighten the mood by sticking out his tongue at the other hybrid inside the shield.

“Yeah, well Rule Three remember? In case of a battle, I’m in charge. So get used to it.” Daniel tossed back. He passed a look over his shoulder at Danny and started counting down until he caught sight of a large missile headed for their position. “Never mind! Just go now!” he ordered surging as fast as he could away from his last position.

Danny quickly followed suit, zooming away in close to the opposite direction even faster to avoid being turned into spectral slag. He looked back just as the missile rammed into the earth several hundred yards away from his current position, searing the ground and his retreating form with the heat. _Woah that was close! Good thing he spotted that bomb before we got turned into burnt up pancakes._ “Hey Daniel!” He called into the settling air around the blast zone.

“Over here,” he responded with a small blue flare to cut through the still kicked up dust. He surveyed the events of the rest of the battle with a critical eye. _The twins and Lizzie are still inside the RV messing around with things. Well as long as they don’t get out it’ll be fine. Jasmine is surround inside the Hover, but the shield is stable, no need to rush off there right at the moment. Mother is…is that Jillian Castle? Oh I’m definitely leaving that alone. And father finished off all but one of the platforms, but it looks like the first round of tanks are just about through the edge of the forest leading to the valley floor. We need to leave._

“So, how about we go rescue Jazz from being stuck inside that shield?” Danny asked while settling next to his pensive looking doppelganger. When that didn’t seem to get his attention, he floated in front of him. “Hey dude, are you still in there?” the time traveling teen crossed his arms in frustration.

“Yes I hear you; give me a second. I’m trying to figure out the easiest way to get Jasmine back to the RV safely. Oh and she abhors being called ‘Jazz’ so don’t do it around her.”

“Oh yes your majesty.” Danny rolled his eyes and continued, “Dude why don’t we just swoop in, grab her, and fly her back to the RV? That’s simple-”

“-And probably going to get her killed.” Daniel interrupted. “As soon as we fly over there, every GSU fighter wannabe is going to fire at us, and if you thought it was hard before, it’ll be impossible after that.” He frowned and looked directly at the other ghost powered teen, “so unless you’d like to offer yourself up as bait-”

“Is that all? No problem, so let’s get over there!” At the surprised and skeptical look he was receiving from the other boy he explained further. “Dude I’m one of the fastest most agile ghosts I know. Trust me; if they can hit me then I deserve it. Now let’s go!” Not wanting to waste another moment, Danny shot towards the Hover’s position like a piece of black streaked lightening.

Daniel sighed and charged after him, hoping to cut him off before he did anything especially stupid or dangerous. _And considering this entire situation is his fault to begin with, I likely have no idea the depths he can sink to._ He caught up with Danny just as the top of the Hover’s shield came into view. The fact the other teen was still floating around the outside of the shield, dodging weapons’ fire, surprised him until he remembered the shield technology’s newest feature.  Daniel stopped next to the other ghost powered teen above the very top of the dome. “Hey you keep them busy while I go grab Jasmine. I mean, since you volunteered to be the bait and everything, I’m sure you don’t mind holding the fort.” With that said he dived inside the shield and landed in front of the opening to the Hercules Hover. “So need a lift?”

“Thanks, but I’m more concerned with how Dad is going to-Dad!” Jasmine cut herself off as a large pink blast threw the line of advancing GSU men back over 100 feet. She bounded out of the craft and to the edge of the shield, trying to get a better look.

“Saw your flare, and figured it was about time I made an appearance. Is everything ready to go?” He said through the energy wall of the shield, eyes warily searching the area for any sign of enemy combatants.

Jasmine smiled and thumbed over her shoulder in the direction of the open hovercraft. “Yeah we just need to move it. I’m not sure how that’s going to happen though, with all of the jets and soldiers everywhere.” She leaned around his floating form when she saw a bright green flash go off. _Oh, well at least he’s being useful. I’d expect him to be completely freaked out by now. Where **did** he learn to fight?_ She wondered before refocusing on her father drifting through the shield and landing on one side of the Hover.

“Daniel and I are going to teleport it. Now the shield is going to disappear with it, so be ready to defend yourself when that happens. Also, Danny,” he paused and raised his volume to get the other halfa’s attention. “I shouldn’t have to tell you this, but defend Jasmine. We’ll only be otherwise occupied for a few minutes, but plenty can happen in that time.” Vlad ended his warning by placing his hands on the Hover. “Ready Daniel?”

“As I’ll ever be.” He replied while watching his sister step out of the protection of the energy shield, gun in hand. _Be careful_ _._ He thought before placing his palms against the cool smooth metal and concentrating…

 _You know, I’m beginning to think offering to be the distraction/bait/ghost hunter sacrifice wasn’t the best of ideas._ _In fact, I’m not sure what possessed me to volunteer to be the living ecto-weapons’ fire “pin” cushion._ Danny dodged another in the increasing volley of GSU green colored blasts. It was getting harder for even him to avoid the shots, but stopping and erecting even a small shield would only make himself a bigger and more easily fatigued target. He glanced down to where his sister was fighting through the horde of men with expert marksman like shots. _Oh yeah definitely bizarro world._ He concluded after getting a chance to see her much improved aim in action. He risked another fleeting look away from the battle at hand to the pair working behind him. _Ok their energy is all around the flying metal bug thing, so they should be done in a minute or two. Not so bad…_

Just then the Hover, ghost hybrids and all, dissipated into a puff of red smoke. The shield disappeared only tenths of a second afterwards, leaving Danny and Jasmine alone in wake of the Hover’s departure.

Danny took his mind off the battle for only a second, distracted by the teleportation, but it only took that much for him to miss a shot heading straight for Jasmine on the ground. The sound of her pained and surprised cry was what got his attention. “Jazz! Hold on I’m coming.” He shot down towards her like a rocket, stopping just in front of her and creating an ecto-shield large enough for them both. “Hey are you alright?” the younger halfa asked gritting his teeth against the rapid patter of the attacks against his shield.

“I’ll be fine.” The other girl hissed back at him through her pain. “Just give me a sec to wrap this up and I’ll be back to the blasting action.” She tore through a strip of fabric on the ruined sleeve of her injured arm, making a quick tourniquet. Other than a slight tremor from the pain, her arm was otherwise still useable. _Good._ She concluded before setting the second ecto-gun back onto her injured side and standing up behind Danny. The red haired girl began to take stock of new situation when a ripple went through her system. They were about to be completely surrounded, and worse, she couldn’t really shoot as well on her right side now.

“Hey Jazz do me a favor.” Danny stated while lowering his arms and taking a deep breath.

“Sure thing if you don’t call me Jazz ever again.” She replied with a slight scowl in her tone.

“Stand behind me, and cover your ears.” He planted his feet and deepened his stance, he didn’t really have the room to go anywhere else, and this attack had a habit of throwing him backwards if he didn’t really brace himself. Danny took one final deep lung filling breath, closed his eyes, and…

If she had been thinking of keeping her arms up in favor of defending herself when Danny’s shield dropped, that thought left her mind immediately after his attack started. Even behind him, where the sound was at its least powerful, it was overwhelming. Jasmine dropped to her knees behind him; trying to bury her ears in a combination of her hair and hands to block out even more of the sound. It was so loud she couldn’t even think. She opened her eyes and was suddenly glad to be on the ground already, since the whole of it looked to be waving back and forth in time with the bright green waves of piercing howling sound pouring from Danny’s mouth. Just when she thought she couldn’t stand another second, he stopped and bent over panting with his hands on his knees. She saw his transformation rings start up before they fizzled out. Her ears were still ringing, but even so the silence was palatable. “ _What was **that**_?” She shrieked at him, still nearly deaf from the attack.

“Ouch! _My_ ears still work you know?” Danny complained while rubbing the one that had been closest to her auditory assault. “You like it? I call it my Ghostly Wail. That thing will demolish anything.” He stood back up and surveyed the damage. _Well the first few rows are definitely down for the count; their equipment too. The closest troops to us look too shell shocked to do much but lay there for the next couple minutes and the ones across the valley will take a good while to get to us, which is perfect because we are heading to the RV._

Jasmine flit her eyes over the prone men and women of the GSU with a small smirk. “Well it certainly packs one hell of a punch, but I don’t suppose you can do that more than once or in the air can you?” She sighed when he shook his head, and noticed the much dimmer glow around his ghost form. “Well let’s get-”

“Macaroons! What in the world did you two do? We were only gone a minute or so…” Vlad trailed off as he took in the destruction of the area around the two teens.

“Wasn’t me. Danny did this sound attack thing, and it was like a ghost powered freight train. It just knocked them out.” Jasmine shrugged her shoulders and clipped her gun back onto her belt.

“Oh yeah, it’s like my trump card; it’s destructive, could cause a bunch of collateral damage, but it never fails to get rid of whatever I’m fighting. Hey wait,” Danny scrunched up his face as he eyed another very Vlad looking ghost a little farther off. “How long have you had a duplicate over there fighting?”

“Since I started trying to teleport the Hover with Daniel. I needed to keep-” the rest of Vlad’s sentence was lost in the slew of spectral grenades carpeting the area and bouncing off his hastily created shield.

“So there’s the real you Plasmius. I’d wondered what hole you’d slithered off into.” A deep voice mocked from a vantage a little above the protected group.

“What’s the matter?” Vlad asked as his recently destroyed duplicate dissolved back into his system, bringing its memories along with it. “Feeling a little neglected Jack?” He asked sending a tone of mock concern back.

Jack sent out a low whistle and shifted on the Levitator to get a better shot at the creature below. “Oh little ole’ me? Why ever would I feel lonely when you have the family you _stole_ from me? I-could you all hold on a moment, I’m trying to fix these G-bombs onto your spectral energy signatures, and you just keep moving around. Naughty little ghosts. How am I supposed to _kill_ you if you don’t stand still?” The Head Commander finished his ramble with some more fiddling on his supersized weapon. “Ah right there it goes, now where was I?” He questioned rhetorically as he took aim in the general direction of the group below him. “Oh that’s right I was explaining how I’m not lonely, because I’m not you see, I’m actually just _furious_ , you know for the life destroying and all, but I’m not lonely; I have all my soldiers to keep me company.” Jack flicked a button on the top of the weapon to take off the safety.

“You kids head back to the RV; I’ll take care of Jack.” Vlad ordered while waving them back towards the defended vehicle’s position.

“But father, I can help-” Daniel barely finished the sentiment before staggering to the left when he tried to take a step forward.

“You’re exhausted. You can help me by staying out of this and getting your butt back to safety. Thanks for your help with the Hover earlier, but I’ve got this one on my own.” He sent a light glare in the kids’ direction when they looked ready to protest, and an especially large one in the more rebellious Danny’s direction. “And don’t tell me you’re not tired either Danny, that last attack wiped you out. Just…do as I ask alright?” He didn’t wait to hear their replies but instead rushed up towards his opponent, wanting to cut off the next attack before it was even fired. To his luck, he made it just in time…

 


	14. Battle Royale: Part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The main event, a daring escape, a dressing down or two, and a secret revealed!

“I can’t believe I’m being sent back to the RV like a child. I mean _sugar cookies_ what am I five?”       

“Stop your whining! It’s not like you’d be much help as exhausted as you are.”

“Riiiigggght,” Daniel drawled before giving a once over to the person running slightly ahead of him, “and your bum arm would have been perfectly useful for fighting.”

“Oh shut the hell up! I can still shoot with my off-hand; you’re practically falling over.” Jasmine didn’t bother to send a glare over her shoulder, her tone communicating what her face didn’t.

“Yes you’re right, I mean it’s not like I can just _make_ more ener-oh wait that’s right, _I can!_ ” Daniel retorted.

“Sure you can,” Jasmine started amicably, “if you weren’t completely wiped from accelerating your energy production twice today already,” she finished with a tone like a sneer. She stopped and turned around to actually send a glare his way this time.

“Oh of course, because being a half-ghost, you’re perfectly versed in the nuances of making spectral energy in your own body. I mean silly me! Here I was thinking you were fully _human_ or something.”

“Oh my _God_ , would you just-”

“Listen, I hate to interrupt this lovely sibling bonding moment, really I do, but do you think the both of you could stop fighting for a few seconds and turn off the shield so I can get inside now?” Danny peered at the two of them from the outside of the RV’s DNA recognition fitted shield, anxious to just get _inside_ already.

The two siblings turned and stared at Danny standing, shifting from one foot to the other, outside of the shield with looks equal measure exasperation and surprise, having forgotten the other boy was even there. Jasmine moved inside first, heading for the control panel, while Daniel leaned against the side of the RV; willing to show some amount of fatigue now that his sister wasn’t around to witness it.

“Alright, it should be off now.” A disembodied voice called from inside the camper.

Danny started forward only to slam into an invisible barrier. “Darn it guys, what gives?” He asked while rubbing the sore spot on his face from hitting the still active shield. Only giggling answered his question before he heard someone shout and the scuffling of feet.

“Damn it Nathaniel! I’m so sorry Danny, Nate’s an idiot, but the shield is down for sure now.” Jasmine said, head sticking out of the door to the RV.

“Oh no, you should turn it back on. Watching him walk into it like a bird smacking into glass is the most entertaining thing that’s happened today.” Daniel smirked as Danny carefully walked forward with his hands out to make sure the shield was really offline this time. He rolled his eyes when he heard his sister call him a morbid jerk and held an arm over the entrance to the stairs when Danny approached them. “Listen, I need to ask you something real fast.”

“Interrogate him later Daniel; we need to get ready to leave, and as much as I hate to admit it at the moment, I’m going to need your help.” The eldest Masters’ sibling frowned from her position at the top of the stairs to the RV before pointing a finger in Danny’s direction. “But mister jerkass over there is right, we have a few questions for you, and you better answer them this time.” She stared over the outstretched arm of her younger brother and into the worried looking eyes of the dark haired teen that had turned their life upside down in less than twelve hours.

“Hey guys! Nate and I finally found Dad with the spy cameras, and _boy_ are you missing a great fight.” Nick claimed from his position crowded around the front of the RV cabin with his twin brother and younger sister. He quickly turned back to the screen, clearly enraptured with whatever was playing on its surface.

The older three kids finally joined the younger three inside before Daniel pushed them out of the way to press a few buttons on the control center panel.

“First things first, let’s turn the shield back on, and turn the weapons system off.” He declared while moving to do just that. Afterwards, he glanced at the screen, and finally noticed what had his younger siblings so enthralled. “Ooookk, that is more amazing than I thought it would be. Everyone to the back, I’m going to turn on the big screen.” He watched with satisfaction as the younger kids practically raced away from the front of the camper to get a better view on the larger screen coming from the ceiling farther back in the RV. _Well that tactic worked better than I thought it would._ He nodded once to himself before delivering on the promise to display the battle on the larger screens. With a sigh, he finally transformed back into a human.

“Good ploy. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them rush _away_ from the control panel that fast.”

“My lord, she does know the meaning of the word compliment.”

“And now I’m regretting giving you one. Do you think you could stop being a dick for like five minutes, or would you implode or something?” Jasmine quirked her mouth into a half smile, knowing she needed to blow off some of her emotional stress as much as he did, and happy he was willing to oblige.

“ _Implode_ , highly unlikely. However-”

“Woah! What _is_ that thing?” Danny asked, finally having moved around to a place where he could see the battle taking place on the display.

Daniel and Jasmine moved around to join everyone in front of the screen, before answering.

“That’s one of the GSU’s Air Platforms.” Daniel replied with a shrug. “I mean, I know they look impressive, but they probably have older, lower grade, technology in it than the Hover, and _that_ thing is like four years old.”

“Which makes it like 80 in technology years.” Nick added while settling down next to his siblings, popcorn in hand.

“I-seriously?” Jasmine asked, catching sight of the snack bowl being passed around. While she didn’t begrudge them the world view that made this all seem like a game, sometimes they really seemed over the top with it. She rolled her eyes at their innocent stare and continued, “In any case, old as they are, they’re still effective and dangerous. So-”

“Yeah but not as dangerous as our dad!” Nate interrupted in between slurping on soda materialized from someplace.

Danny had to agree. If there was one thing he was well acquainted with, it was how dangerous Plasmius could be if he put his mind to it…

 

* * *

 

 

He always had to be so damnably difficult. A dodge here, a teleport there, and he was 100ft away, always just out of reach. He couldn’t just land and use hand to hand combat like a _real_ man. No. He had to zip and zoom and _run_ like the coward he was, like the coward that his species was. Jack could call Plasmius “he” now, if only in his mind, because unlike the rest of the sniveling excuses for ecto-beings he was different. He had been his best friend once after all… “Are you done playing hard to get Plasmius, or am I going to have to continue for a while longer?” Jack taunted over the distance between them, tapping the barrel of his ecto-gun with his free hand. When his opponent declined to answer, Jack did for him, firing an ecto-blast at him. “Or how about we play tag?” He murmured, bringing another weapon to bear, this time filled with ecto-signature seeking missiles. He loosed another barrage of attacks meant to disable his opponent. _Not kill. No that is far too quick and gentle a way to die for him._

Vlad sped off, missiles trailing close behind. He spared a glance behind him to sight his opponent before shooting up sharply into the air. The missiles followed faithfully behind as he zipped and dived in between the remaining Air Platforms. He lost two of the six projectiles in the crowded space between the floating equipment before changing trajectory and heading straight up. Jack easily maneuvered his Levitator into his path, aiming a nasty looking weapon directly at him. He didn’t deviate his course one inch. At the last moment, Vlad turned intangible through a hail of bright green ecto-weapon’s fire. The halfa passed through the attacks _and_ his opponent turning tangible on the opposite side long enough to fire a single bright pink blast in the direction he came.

One of the missiles took the brunt of the damage from the ecto-weapons, meeting an explosive end. The rest dipped around Jack to continue their pursuit and rammed straight into the ball of energy meant as a diversion. The resulting explosion consumed the area in a large ball of flame and destruction that slowly dimmed and faded into a cloud of smoke. Two glowing spheres of different tones appeared as the haze cleared. Slow repetitive claps rang out into the space between the two shields.

“Bravo, bravo Plasmius. You took care of those like they were child’s play, and even used them to incapacitate the launch area of one of my Platforms. I’m honestly shocked. Here I was, believing you had gotten _stupider_ over the last two years since we’d last met in battle. Silly me. It seems instead you’ve just gotten sloppy.” Jack paused as the last of the smoke finally vanished and he got a good look at the other fighter. _Not a scratch. Shame._ “If you were trying to send your little solider out on a recon mission, then you either trained him poorly or picked the wrong abomination for the task. I would have said you were trying to feint me into a trap if you had not been so woefully unprepared when we arrived. What’s the matter Plasmius? One of your little ghostlings wander away from the nest?” The GSU Commander settled deeper into the Levitator’s seat to balance the large piece on his shoulder.

Vlad frowned at the Commander’s ramblings. “Only you deal with soldiers Jack-”

“Oh yes! I forgot. You are too much a coward to deal with war and the battle field. That’s why you run and hide like the scum you are.” The Commander suddenly laughed before aiming the ecto-weapon a little closer to his preferred target. “I wonder what the rest of your species huddled in my facility thinks about your cowardice; I’m sure they could have used your help when I was eradicating the world of their unholy infestation.” Jack watched in satisfaction as Plasmius hissed and tossed a dark pink attack into his shield.

“Enough talk! I thought you were eager to fight? So here I am _Commander_.” Vlad bite out his rank through grit teeth and slid back into a fighting stance. He didn’t have to wait long before another set of attacks was headed in his direction. He once again dodged around the initial barrage before teleporting farther off, continuing his strategy from before. He set up a solid ectoplasm shield to stop an even more vicious series of attacks and furrowed his brow in worry. The older halfa had no idea where his wife was, but she was the last member of the group not ready to leave in the RV. He had been trying to find her, but even with the advantage of being airborne, the chaos of the battle below him made the task difficult, especially when dealing with a certain distraction.

It had been annoying to begin with, sure, but now it was simply beyond aggravating. If it hadn’t been obvious before now that his opponent wasn’t taking this meeting seriously, it became so right after he put up a simple ecto-shield and started _looking around_ at the earth beneath him. _No doubt searching for Maddie…_ Still, it hadn’t been as infuriating as the fact his weapons hadn’t so much as dented a single shield the creature had made so far. True enough, Plasmius specialized in energy attacks and manipulation more than the physical, but he had no way to _force_ him into a fist fight where he’d have the advantage. _If only…wait! That may work…_ Jack thought before swerving around to set up another strategy. He slowly moved himself in a circle, watching with delight as Plasmius continued to move himself to face him. After a few minutes he had maneuvered himself and his opponent into the perfect position. Abandoning one of the guns for a moment, the ghost hunter gunned the throttle on the Levitator and sped directly ahead.

Vlad prepared himself for the worse. From the look in the Commander’s eyes he was up to one of his reckless and dangerous, but effective, plots. He watched with increasing worry as the distance between them was reduced by a quarter, and then a half, and finally only three-fourths of its original length. Making a quick decision, he teleported to the other side of Jack to the soldier’s original position. He felt his body solidify and was aware just long enough to see a blazing green blast headed right for him. Then there was a searing sharp pain in his middle followed by a sharp crack that reverberated through his skull. Vlad hissed as he picked himself up from the half-dented half-melted crater in the surface of the Air Platform wall he’d landed in.

The Commander let out a low whistle ending in a ‘bam!’ as he watched Plasmius sail and land into the Air Platform just like he’d planned. _That should get his attention._ A few of the low ranking grunts hovering around the area chuckled at his sound effect antics before zipping off to a separate part of the valley. “So Plasmius, done screwing around yet?” A blast, tingling with the start of static electricity and swirling with a tinge of green in its cherry blossom color, answered him. He felt a wide grin spread across his face as his opponent hovered a few feet above the surface of the Platform, a fierce look of anger darkening his features. _Finally. It’s always more **fun** when he’s angry._ He landed the Levitator onto the surface of the Platform and drew one of his ectoranium laced blades designed to rend ghost flesh. He stared off against his opponent who was still covered in the film of oily grime from the fluid leaking from the damaged wall of the Air Platform. _And now it **really** begins…_

Vlad quickly created three duplicates, each of them taking up positions ninety degrees from one another; in a perfect circle around their opponent. They charged a dark green attack in each of their palms, the heat of Vlad’s anger as much as the reduction in strength changing the predominant color of their energy.

Jack slid another sword from its sheath and waited. Now that the battle was on his terms, he was in no hurry. The longer he made Plasmius fight, the easier it would be to subdue him. Despite the persona the creature had made for himself, he knew his energy wasn’t unlimited. He just needed to wear him down.

The start of the battle wasn’t signaled by any sound or movement, just the unconscious acknowledgement of the two fighters involved. Vlad’s three duplicates attacked simultaneously; the one behind him firing an attack, while the two to the left and right rushed forward, hands swathed in energy.

Jack blocked the attack headed for his back with one sword, and then leaned to the right, elbowing in the stomach of one duplicate and sending his ectoranium reinforced boot into the middle of the other. He slid back onto both feet and swiped down at the head of the duplicate on the right while it was leaned over holding its gut. To his surprise, it flipped onto its back, fell to the ground, and blocked the now over-extended downward strike with it energy covered hands. Thrown off balance, Jack threw his weight to the right using the block as a solid base as he cartwheeled to the right. A slash on the left side leading backwards through the cartwheel kept the other duplicates at bay, as he easily landed outside of the old circle. He settled his feet, turned to face them, and then rushed his still startled opponents.

Jack’s boot had just passed over the position of the duplicate on the ground, when a large blast came from the original Vlad. He barely suppressed a hiss as the man merely brought both swords around to reflect the blast and continued charging two of the duplicates. He watched as the copies sent several blasts towards the Commander. Nothing got inside of his expert defense, and he realized with growing frustration that he wouldn’t be able to simply leave the duplicates there while he found Maddie. _Well if it’s a fight you want…_ The eldest hybrid thought while preparing to jump into the fray himself.

Plasmius sent an energy covered foot directly towards his temple, while the duplicates with a clear shot fired towards his body. Jack blocked the kick with his forearm, and deflected one of the two shots, opting to take the last to the middle of his back. His suit sustained the majority of the damage, but his opponent’s energy was _hot_. It burned more than it stung, but he knew it was better than taking a blow to the head or one of his arms. He gritted his teeth and dropped one of his swords in favor of one of his many guns. He popped two of the duplicates in the chest, before dropping the gun and picking his the sword he originally abandoned in order to deflect more energy blasts. He watched the four equal visions of his greatest enemy regroup and advance as a single line before pausing. “What’s the matter? “ Jack asked as he spied one of the duplicates once again looking at the ground under the Platform. “I promise your ghost sow won’t be killed. So stop worrying about her an-” He didn’t get a chance to finish the sentiment before the hybrid was upon him with renewed vigor.

He knew getting him riled up was all part of Jack’s plan; just the same, he wasn’t about to let the psychotic get away with insulting his wife like that. This time instead of sending all the duplicates to attack at once, he started with one. He wanted to get a good rhythm going in the fight before adding more. It dipped and dodged around the Commander’s increasingly annoyance tinged attacks. Soon, the second and third duplicate had started in on Jack. Two of them kept him busy paring and counterattacking while a third tossed in weak, but well-aimed, energy attacks between the holes in his defenses. Soon enough, the man’s attacks became sloppy from both the burning ache of fatigue and the anger. Vlad saw his chance when the GSU Commander finally dropped one of his swords with a pained grunt as a small ecto-energy blast hit his shoulder.  He rushed forward and sent up a silent prayer that his wife was still alright. _Wherever you are…_

On a battlefield several hundred yards away, Maddie and Jill were still going at it. Ever since she’d heard Jillian order her men to fire at her son, _he’s nearly defenseless when he’s using that much focus_ , she’d been determined to make sure the woman never threatened her family again. Unfortunately, that was much easier thought than done, and she now had a few more trophy wounds to show for the efforts. Her sprained wrist throbbed from the continued strength it took to hold her increasingly heavy bo-staff, but she wasn’t about to give up so easily. She stood facing her opponent silently, for the third time that day, as the chaos around them slowly began to die down.

Jillian, for her part, was in no better shape. After being tackled to the ground, and having her injured arm- _that forearm is definitely fractured_ -jostled by the fall, she’d gotten a few more bruises and a large lick to the thigh that made standing a struggle. Just the same, she was just as determined as her opponent. She’d mostly been trying to ruffle the other woman’s feathers earlier with her comments, but it didn’t mean she didn’t believe most of it. Except for the comments about her Commander, she was sure Maddie’s offspring were more monstrous than anything they currently had locked up in the GSU labs. _Twisted little perversions of humanity that they are._ Jill set her mouth into a thin line, and steadied her shaking good arm. She noted with some satisfaction that the other woman was shaking nearly as badly as she was.

 _I have to get to the RV._ Maddie realized when she detected the din of battle quieting as the remaining soldiers and machines regrouped towards the last remaining Platforms. She could just make out the rumble of tanks as they barreled towards the middle of the valley, and she noticed with dismay, that she could no longer assume she had the strength to fight off troops if Jill got reinforcements. Just the same, she had to get past the GSU’s second in command first, and she didn’t look inclined to just let her pass. The mother of five chanced a glance into the sky looking for her husband. She knew he was around here somewhere; she’d just seen him flying about, what felt like only seconds ago, but was likely several long minutes before. He’d be able to just grab her and fly them back to the RV with little effort. _If only I could get his attention._ She thought wistfully, before turning her attention back to the task at hand.

Jillian was about to rush her opponent for what felt like the umpteenth time that day, when a _loud_ explosion rang out over the valley floor. A few minutes before, it would have been indistinguishable from the roar of battle, but with so many men either dead, injured, or regrouping the noise caught her attention. She swiveled around for the source, before locating a plume of green-grey smoke coming from the top of one of the Platforms. She recognized the smoke as the remains of one of their ecto-grenades, but it took a few seconds for the smoke to clear enough to see one of the shapes. Even from this distance, she’d know the person hanging over the edge of the Platform anywhere. She hissed as a separate figure became clear hovering a few feet away from the first, and came to a decision. Her grudge match with Madeline would have to be put off yet _again_. She spied a group of Levitators heading towards her position, flying towards the Platform, and moved to get picked up. “Sorry dear,” she started while crouching to prepare herself from a leap, “but this is going to have to be postponed. I hope you understand.” She narrowed her eyes as one of the Levitator pilots saw her and made for her position.

Maddie went from confused to shocked when her normally stubborn opponent just called it quits. She was about to count her blessings, when she noticed where the woman was looking. She risked a single look to her left and immediately realized why Jillian was trying to leave. Maddie growled and prepared to stall her further, when she saw her jump and get pulled into the sky on a Levitator. “NO.” _Damn it all, just when I figure out where Vlad is._ Maddie groused mentally, and prepared to run the distance on foot.

Right then, a group of soldiers practically materialized out of nowhere. They had been approaching from behind, wanting to reinforce their Second in Command, before she’d been picked up by the Levitators. When they saw her get snatched up, they recognized they were in a unique position to catch the usually hyper aware Maddie Masters off guard. They planned on capitalizing on the advantage. They drew their weapons and prepared to fire while on the run, knowing they’d only get one chance at surprising her.

She’d just watched the tired, but still dangerous, Jill disappear to attack her husband when a barrage of weapons’ fire rained down on her. She’d been lucky that the grunts firing at her had bad aim. Still, several of them had to be deflected, and before she could figure out how to get over to the Platform, Maddie had to refocus herself onto the group of fighters approaching from the rear. _I hope he can handle them both until we can meet up for an escape._ The former ghost hunter thought as she faced off with her newest adversaries.

Vlad’s gambit had worked, and he’d easily grabbed his opponent. Unfortunately, like anything to do with the GSU Commander, the man was making pinning him a battle in and of itself. Two of the duplicates rushed forward to help twist him up, and after a few more seconds of struggling, they’d finally gotten the man’s arms pinned behind him. He smirked as he aimed a blast large enough to knock the other man unconscious. “Anything to tell me before handing off to dreamland?”

“Yush, shuff havd atch’d meh-”

“What?” Vlad slightly lowered hand in confusion.

“I said,” Jack started around the piece of his uniform in his mouth detaching from his collar, “you should have watched me more closely.”

He watched in horror as a mini ecto-grenade rolled into their midst. Vlad looked up just in time to see Jack smile around the pulled pin, before everything went bright green and painful.

 _Fudge **ripple** my head is killing me. And my core isn’t much better._ He grimaced with the effort it was taking to stay in ghost form. That last blast had taken it out of him.  The eldest ghost hybrid looked around to survey the damage done by the grenade. His duplicates had been destroyed in the blast, and had rejoined his ghost form. The Platform’s surface was both smoking in some places and badly scorched in others. Finally, Jack was nowhere to be found. “Where did he…” It wasn’t as if the grenade would turn him into ash, it was mostly calibrated to harm ghosts, and even from point blank range, it wouldn’t do more than burn him. Vlad floated over the surface of the Platform before peering over the edge. _Ah, so that’s-_ “where you gotten to.” He said finishing his thoughts out loud.

Jack was clinging to a twisted edge of the Platform for dear life. He’d expected the blast to throw him some distance, but he hadn’t planned for it to be towards the edge of the Platform instead of towards the interior. He’d had just enough wits about him to grab a hold of something, despite being temporarily blinded and deafened by his own grenade. Now sporting a couple of nasty energy burns on his legs from the blast, it made climbing up a challenge, which was why, nearly three minutes after the explosion, he was still making his way back to the top of the Platform. Just then, he saw Plasmius peer over the edge of the machine. _Oh great, it didn’t even incapacitate the bastard._ Now more clear-headed than before, he wasn’t sure _what_ had possessed him to fight the creature in a fair one on one fight. Not only did ghosts not deserve a fair fight to begin with, this specific one especially didn’t. He ground his molars and braced himself when he saw Plasmius’ hand light up.

Vlad looked down at the vulnerable GSU leader and, for a moment, he imagined blasting him right off of the Platform and watching while he made a nice big splat on the ground like a bug against a windshield. Before the thought was even fully formed, he changed his mind. For some reason he couldn’t really pinpoint, he just couldn’t kill the man in front of him. The ghost hybrid sighed, and was about to work out how to get Jack back to safety without getting shot at, when a blast slammed directly into his chest. _What was…_ He barely had time to wonder before another equally large shot sunk him further into the surface of the already compromised Platform.

“Does it sting Plasmius? I hope so. We had this gun modified and calibrated _especially_ against your energy.” Jill hopped off the Levitator and onto the top of the Platform. She looked back at the side of the vehicle and noted with concern the way the Commander let go of the side. _Sore, injured…I’ll make it pay for that._

The eldest halfa started when he recognized her voice. “Jillian? Still saving Jack’s incompetent apple dumplings are you?” He asked while teleporting out of the crater he’d made and a few feet off. He smirked when she shot at the now empty hole and, when she growled in frustration, it only grew in size. _The small victories_.

“My Commander doesn’t need saving, but you’re going to need more than a rescue when I’m done with you. In fact, I doubt even our boys in the labs will be able to put your Humpty ass back together when I’m done with it.” Jillian threatened while flicking her oversized weapon to full power. She was joined to her right by Jack and she watched with grim satisfaction as he pulled out one of his deadlier guns. _Let’s see if you keep smiling after we blast off your limbs._

The two of them fired right as Vlad erected a light green shield. _This is not good._ Despite his previous bravado, he was more tired than he initially supposed. Taking them both on at once would be a challenge on a good day, but he was already battle worn, and despite the surety they were just as tired, they didn’t need to fire their own energy. He grunted as an especially large shot hit his ever weakening shield. The tiring ghost backed into one of the walls to brace himself while he thought of a way out of this.

Jill shared a look with her bedraggled Commander; they had the hybrid on the ropes for sure this time. She backed away to let him advance, but continued to pepper his shield with enough weapons fire to keep him preoccupied. They just had to wear him down, and it would be easier to do if one of them was firing from near point blank range. They had little reason to worry about a retaliatory blast at this point. It was taking everything Plasmius had to keep the shield up.

The GSU Commander advanced on his prey, his dimming glow enticing him better than the moon did a moth. It was nearly _his_. Victory. Jack brought up a different gun, the most powerful in his arsenal, and leveled it right at the creature across from him. With a satisfying crack, the ghost’s shield fell apart, and he charged the gun for another shot.

Vlad had known as soon as Jack had drawn that last gun that his shield was done for. It was hard enough to stabilize it against the current blasts, but he had a nasty scar on the middle of his back from the last time that particular gun had been fired on him from this range, and he had no intention of getting a matching one on his chest. Right when the first shot slammed into his shield, he’d stopped reinforcing it and redirected his energy into an ecto-energy attack. Jack never knew what hit him…

The attack knocked Jack off his feet and several feet away. Before the glow had even stopped, Jillian fired a grenade that blasted her opponent six inches into the wall behind him. She watched with a twisted glee as he collapsed panting on his hands and knees to the ground after bouncing off the wall. She’d switched her gun for an ecto-grenade launcher a few seconds ago, and when his attack threw the Commander away from him, she’d had the best chance to use it.

Vlad curled up holding his middle. He pressed an exploratory hand into the wound and winced. _Jelly doughnuts…_ His hand came back stained with ectoplasm and he suppressed a groan when his last attempt to get back onto his feet left his center feeling like there were shards of _something_ inside. The first grenade hadn’t had done anything like this, as it was mostly energy, but this- he froze when he heard the conspicuous whine of a ghost weapon pointed at his head. He sent up his fiercest glare in Jillian’s direction as she hovered over him with a deadly grin on her face.

Jack was just pulling himself up after that last attack when he saw Jill holding that creature at gun point. He was sore all over, even if not badly injured from his suit’s protections. He took a moment to catch his breath and looked over at Jill once more, noticing this time the way she was cradling one of her arms to her body. _Must have seriously injured it earlier._ He concluded while working his way back to his feet. He picked up his fallen weapon and walked over to join Jill standing over Plasmius.

“So, ready to give up, or” Jill paused to flick the gun into ready mode once it finished charging, “will you give me the pleasure of shooting your head clean off?” She watched as doubt began to flicker into the eyes of the creature below her. _But never fear…what would it take to make him afraid?_ She felt more than saw her commanding officer saddle up next to her. She could almost feel the smug satisfaction radiating off of him. After all this time, they were finally going to get this son of a bitch. She only had a moment to consider that thought, before she noticed the light in his eyes change from doubt and worry to confident and calm. She followed his eyes over her shoulder and turned to see the Levitator heading for her person. “Jack! Mo-”

Maddie rolled to a stop a few yards away from the flaming wreckage of the Levitator she’d crashed into the surface of the Platform. Unfortunately, the blast had thrown both Jack and Jill out of the main fire, so because of their suits, they likely weren’t dead. Luckily though, her husband had seen her coming, and she was sure he- _oh there he is now_. She watched with apprehension as Vlad half-floated, half-limped out of the burning fire while still intangible.

The crash and resulting explosion hadn’t hurt him, but he was already so exhausted from the previous fighting and the- _oh goody it’s still bleeding_ \- wound to his stomach that even maintaining intangibility at this point was a struggle. He joined his wife away from the fire with a weary smile. He could always count on her whenever he needed it. Now, he just had to get them back to the RV. Through the rising smoke in the last of the daylight, he could see other GSU grunts coming to investigate the fire and explosions. _But the ones stomping up from inside, underneath our feet, are the real problem._ The oldest hybrid once again fought back the urge to transform. If he transformed now, the injury to his stomach could be fatal. No, he had to soldier on, if not for his own safety, to make sure the rest of his family got out of this clusterfuck alive. Vlad took a deep breath and lifted Maddie into his arms before she could protest.

They were flying, hiding in the light of the setting sun, before she’d had a chance to demand to look at that injury he’d sustained sometime in the fight with those maniacs. Just the same, there was likely little she could _do_ about it at the moment, and there was no other way off the Platform after she’d so thoroughly trashed her ride there. She gasped when she felt something hot and wet when she pressed the hand trapped between them into his stomach. _That’s serious._ But before she could worry about it further, they were through the shield around the RV and on the ground.

Vlad rushed towards the door and threw it open, climbing the steps before his complaining legs could give out on him. He strapped himself into the driver’s seat and turned on the systems of the RV while doing a head count. … _Elizabeth, Danny, Maddie. Thank God, that’s everyone._ “Alright, we’re getting out of here! Kids, strap in.”  

Maddie settled into the seat next to him, brought up the weapons system, and changed the shield to a cloaking mode to save power for what she knew would be the nastier part of the escape through the mountain passes. She glanced back and made sure everyone was buckled before Vlad punched it. She felt the RV zoom to life, heading straight for the woods, through a well practiced path out of the valley. “Is everyone ok back there?” She hadn’t seen anyone look injured, except her husband, but the older two were much better about hiding it than she liked.

“Everyone’s fine mother, we’re just tired.” Daniel winced when he noticed how drained his own voice sounded. He began to relax as the last rumbles of the battlefield faded away behind them. It would take about half an hour to get back into the open in the mountains, so he knew he needed to relax now while he had the chance.

“Are you sure Daniel? I saw you get shot-”

“It drained a lot of my ghost energy, but I’m mostly bruised. I’ll be completely recovered in a few days, I’m fine _now_ so don’t worry.” He hoped that was enough to convince her, he knew that she could read him like a book when she wanted to. He traded looks with his older sister, who was likely thinking the same thing about her own injuries.

Maddie wasn’t fooled, he was likely much more hurt than he was saying, but it also wasn’t serious enough that he thought it warranted attention, and that was a comfort in and of itself. He couldn’t be that badly injured if he still had the energy to lie about it. The rest of her children answered just as emphatically that they were fine. She didn’t believe her eldest daughter _either_ , but the same logic that applied to Daniel applied to her. She frowned when she heard Danny reply. The boy was the reason her family was in trouble in the first place, and she hadn’t gotten a chance to get good answers out of him, not least of which about his ghost powers. She ground her teeth when the end of the forest came into view. “Alright everyone, hold on,” she started while switching the shield back into active mode, “here’s comes the hard part.”

 _The **hard** part? What did she call everything before this?_ Danny wondered with a growing pond of bubbling worry in his gut.

As soon as the RV drove out of the relative safety of the forest, the shield was attacked from above by what remained of the GSU’s air support. A few jets, that had escorted the tanks, fired bullets into the shield, and a few dozen more men on Levitators that had tracked them through the forest fired their own personal weaponry. That wasn’t the main concern at the moment though. Directly ahead of them was a line of tanks. The GSU had surrounded the valley to the best of their ability, and had dropped a smaller number of tanks around all parts of the valley, even as the main force attacked from the east.

Vlad maneuvered the RV around the majority of the tank fire and continued forward at full speed. He wasn’t about to be scared off by a few tanks when he knew the shield could hold up to a direct hit from one of them easily. They just had to get into the narrow mountain passages, and the tanks would be no problem at all. They couldn’t follow on the steep slopes and thin rocky roads-they were more like large paths- he'd cut himself through the mountains for a quick escape. Honestly, an ordinary RV couldn’t either, but he hadn’t built this thing basically from scratch no reason.

The RV zoomed through a gap in the tank line the shield made, and they passed into the mountains. There was a short break in the action as the tank fire stopped and the jets lost sight of them. Then they came out from behind an outcropping of rocks, and the Levitators found them again. The pilots let out an especially large barrage, hoping to knock the speeding behemoth off of the increasingly thin road it was traveling on.

“Geez, that was a big one.” Danny said through rattling teeth, as another set of loud booms echoed off the shield. He glanced out the window and spotted the flying contraptions still in pursuit.

“They are going to have to do better than that if they want to get to us.” Nate said with an energetic smile on his face.

“Let’s hope they don’t have any better than that.” Daniel said while unclipping himself from his seat and pulling down a set of stairs farther back in the cabin.

Danny was about to question what he was up to, when he disappeared up the stairs, and he heard him call down, “ready whenever you need me.”

“We’re coming up on it, so go on and get ready. Jasmine, could you give him some extra cover fire? There’s more of them than I thought there would be.” Vlad turned back to the control panel and shut down the shield. They’d never make the tight turns coming up with it on, the shielding making it impossible to create the needed ecto-energy bridges far enough in front of the RV. “The shield is off, get ready Daniel.”

“What! Why the hell would you turn the shield off?!” Danny would have jumped out of his seat if he wasn’t buckled in. His eyes darted around the cabin, wondering when the next shot would take out a piece of the vehicle he was riding.

“Because we’d never make it around the corners with- never mind, you’ll see.” Daniel said before boldly popping out of the top of the RV and transforming once again.

At the same time Jasmine opened one of the windows on the side away from the mountain wall, and leaned out of it with a gun balanced on her shoulder. She took a couple pot shots at the Levitators trailing them through the mountains before they saw her, trying to keep them focused on her instead of her more vulnerable brother. In her opinion, he had a hard enough task ahead of him without being shot at, even if they did have the majority of the RV’s weapons online.

Suddenly, the path in front of them turned into a hairpin turn of the most extreme proportions. The RV didn’t even tap the breaks, zipping forward up the slanted slope at nearly 70 miles an hour. The turn neared with alarming speed, and before Danny could think to worry, a solid glowing green angled extension to the road appeared.

He blinked when it just as quickly disappeared after they rounded the turn, and Danny realized with a start it had been made out of ecto-energy. He faced forward again and spied another equally wicked turn coming up and he resisted the urge to groan as another stomach lurching seemingly impossible turn took place.

By this time, the Levitators had caught up to their position and they hailed bullets down on the RV. Most of them hit the mountain wall, but a few had to be blocked by a quickly made shield by Daniel. “Please tell me we’re almost there.”

“We’re nearly there.” Vlad replied without thinking.

“No we aren’t.”

“No…we aren’t. Just… hold on a little while longer…” He panted through the growing pain nipping at the corners of his vision. The throbbing was more like sharp shooting pains at this point, but he’d been through worse. _If only the road wasn’t so blastedly bumpy._ He thought before pushing the RV through another even tighter corner. He audibly groaned when he settled back into his seat from the centripetal force. Something had definitely moved around inside him that time. He gripped the steering wheel as his vision swam after another turn. _Just a little further._ They weren’t remotely close, but if thinking that kept his vision clear, he was fine with self-delusion.

Danny jumped as this time the energy road underneath them cracked and buckled. He’d have volunteered to replace a much more tired Daniel, but frankly, he wasn’t sure if he _could._ He’d never tried to make solid ectoplasm that large before, and certainly not that strong. He had no idea if he’d be able to hold them up, and now wasn’t the time to experiment. So, instead he winced when they flew over a gap in the road ahead of them instead of a turn, and prayed they were close to where ever they were running to.

“I’m out of ammo over here! Does anyone have a free battery?” Jasmine slipped back inside the cabin to look for another battery when her mother tossed her gun at her. She didn’t even bother to thank her, quickly leaning back out of the window to give her brother what help she could. There were times when she really wished she had ghost powers like the majority of her family. _If only to help out more than taking shots out of a window._ “Last turn!” She heard her father call from in the front of the RV, and she braced herself against the window seal.

They were finally out of the worst of the turns, with only a long flat terrible half a mile separating them from the entrance to the cave system. He could turn the shield back on, and pray that the GSU didn’t try anything else today, but he knew from experience that was unlikely. Before Vlad could even set his hand back onto the wheel from resetting the shield, he heard something whistle over head and shoot ahead of him. It was the fighter jets they’d lost when they’d first entered the mountains. He frowned, and pushed the pedal into the floor. Now that they didn’t have to worry about turns, he could floor it.

 _Now_ it was a foot race…

The fight jet squadron leader whooped for joy when they were finally able to get a clear shot. His happiness was short lived though, when he realized that the RV was about to disappear into a cave entrance. _The Head Commander would flay me if I left them get away. Better a wreck than an escape._ He rationalized before picking out a set of missiles on his display screen. He sighted them again, and watched as they closed in on the opening to the cave. “I hope you like being a pancake in a cave-in ghost vermin.” He hissed before letting the missiles fly.

“Uh father, that was the entrance to the cave.” Daniel unnecessarily noted.

“Well aware-”

“Hey I think the cave is collapsing behind us!” Nate called out.

“ _Well **aware**._ Daniel,” Vlad said while watching in the rear view mirror as the quickly advancing wall of rocks fell, “turn us intangible.”

Daniel took a deep breath and pressed his hands against one of the walls of the RV. The intangibility started and then faltered out. He groaned and then tried again, only to fall to his knees this time.

“Dad if you took off the bracelets we could-” Nate and Nick started at the same time.

“You’ve never turned something this large intangible before!” Their mother interrupted

“I could-”

“-No you couldn’t Danny, the system wouldn’t let you. The RV has been ghost proofed to counteract tampering!”

“I’ll do it!” Vlad hissed out through the pain before glancing at his wife. “Maddie, grab the wheel and keep us straight. You remember where the cave off-shoot is right?” The question was mostly rhetorical; they didn’t really have another option. Vlad closed his eyes and placed one hand on the dash and the other on the driver’s side window. For one terrifying moment, he didn’t know whether _he_ even had the energy necessary, then he reached deep for the reserve of energy inside his core he knew had to still be there, and shifted the RV intangible right as the cave-in caught up to them. His whole body shook with the effort it took to keep them intangible, but he determined he wasn’t going to stop until Maddie told them they were clear of the falling debris.

Maddie jerked the wheel to the left as they passed the last marker she remembered before the opening to the smaller cave they were using as an emergency hideout. She gripped the steering wheel harder and hoped they ended up in the open space of the passage instead of a wall. _He can’t keep this up much longer._ Finally, the rocks cleared into a medium sized path heading deeper into the mountain. She let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding and said, “ok we’re through.”

Vlad nearly passed out when he stopped keeping the RV intangible. He leaned over the steering wheel, gasping for air, before easing up off the gas. The RV slowed down to a reasonable speed, as he finally caught his breath and waved off his concerned wife. “I’ll be fine, I’m just tired.”

 _God, do Vlad and Daniel do that on purpose, or is that lug headed stubborn streak just genetic?_ Maddie wondered as she shook her head. “Everyone still ok back there?” After a chorus of ‘yes’ and one from Daniel she completely disregarded, she faced forward again and blinked when she realized they were already stopping in the chamber directly ahead of their sleeping space. The Hover was parked inconspicuously, as much as a giant beetle shaped machine could be, off to one side, and she could see the light from the generator powered equipment her husband must of turned on when they’d come through just an hour back. She sighed as the RV groaned to a stop. They’d probably have to do a couple repairs along with recharging it with how it sounded.

“We made it. God, I thought we were deep fried apple fritters for a second there.” Daniel said from on the floor, leaning against one of the walls. “Not that I doubted you for a second, father.” He added while pulling himself into one of the seats.

“Uh huh, which is why you thought we were deep fried.” Nick fired back.

“I said, ‘for a second’, I didn’t say when that second was thing one.” He settled boneless into the seat with a small groan. His muscled ached like they were on fire and he still had to get out of the RV.

“Yeah but, you totally implied it was just a few seconds ago when you mentioned Dad turning the RV intangible, right Dad?” Nate leaned out of his seat and looked at the front of the RV, hoping to get some parental back up. He frowned when his father didn’t respond. “Hey, Dad, you just going to let him call you weak like that.”

“I did not Nate, I specifically-”

“Both of you stop arguing! My head hurts and I don’t want to hear it.” Jasmine cut in.

“Yeah? Well I got slammed head first into the ground from 200 yards up; I can promise my head hurts worse. And besides, I _didn’t_ call him weak, in fact-”

“It doesn’t matter! I don’t want to hear you guys yell.”

“Said the only person in the room yelling. God, do you _try_ to be that hypocritical or is it some innate talent?” Daniel glared across the space in front of him at his complaining sister

Maddie ignored the bickering go on in the back of the RV in favor of trying to force Vlad out of the ball he’d curled into in the front seat. He’d finally transformed back into his human form, but from the look on his face, he was in serious pain. She finally forced him to sit back so she could get a look at the wound to his abdomen like she wanted to for the last hour. “Jesus!” She exclaimed when she saw how much bright red blood was all over the front of his shirt.

Vlad held up his hands and groaned when his wife lifted up his shirt to get at the lacerations on his middle. He was feeling oddly numb all over and the dizziness was back with a vengeance. He sent a weak smile her direction when she gave him a fearful look from her crouched position. “Sorry hun…” he trailed off as the spinning turned into a growing cold darkness.

 

* * *

 

 

“Plasmius!”

“Sir! Sir calm down, it’s alright.” One of the grunts standing around in the infirmary cried, placing a hand against his superior officer’s shoulder. They’d found both the Head Commander and the Second in Command lying near a fire on the top of the Air Platform. By the time they’d arrived, 1st Priority and his brood mare had already escaped. Luckily, they’d been able to send out the remaining Levitators and fighter jets in pursuit. Even better, despite the size of the explosion and the resulting fire, both of his commanding officers had been relatively unharmed. _It’s good to find the silver lining in things._ The grunt reasoned knowing the Head Commander wouldn’t be thinking along those lines when he got his wits about him.

Jack held his aching head. It felt like someone had practiced kicking field goals with his skull. Various muscles screamed in protest whenever he so much as wiggled, and there was the pulling sting of healing lacerations and burns he felt blossoming across his skin. All in all, he felt like shit, and he couldn’t quite remember _why_. He was in a battle certainly, that much was sure from his injuries. But he couldn’t place where that fight had taken place, or why he’d been fighting. There wasn’t much of a reason for him to be in ghost fights now-a-days, and he couldn’t recall any of the powerful ghosts they had in the facility escaping…so **_why_** -

“Head Commander, did you get the number of the hybrid that hit us?” Jill griped from her make-shift bed right next to his.

 _Ah, so that’s why._ He slowly moved his hand away from his temple as the memories started returning. He grimaced when he realized they had all gotten away. “Agent…” he started after opening his eyes. He fumbled around for a name to go with the face for a moment, he was usually much better at this, before giving up. “What’s the status on the hybrids?” He hoped against hope that things were better than they had been when he’d been knocked unconscious. He had superiors to report to himself. They had put a lot of money on this operation. _And a lot of favors I can’t afford to lose at the moment._

The grunt frowned as the Head Commander didn’t immediately come up with his name. He’d been a member of the medical team for several years now, and the GSU leader had a knack for remembering the names of everyone who worked under him. _I hope he doesn’t have a bad concussion._ It was certainly a possibility considering his injuries, but they didn’t have a scanner of any type here to check. If it was anything more serious, they wouldn’t be able to tell until they got back to civilization. “Last I heard, sir, the Levitators and fighter pilots were in pursuit and the tanks were giving them back-up. I saw them fly out of here about an hour and a half ago.”

“According to their last communication, they are chasing the hybrids in the tight mountain passes to the west of this position.” One of the communication specialists said from her position by a large array of keys and screens.

“And when was that?” Jill said while making her way to her feet.

“About a half an hour back.” The communications specialist answered with an annoyed twist of her lips. She knew as well as anyone that they were supposed to check in more than that. Their beacons were still broadcasting, so they hadn’t been shot down, they just hadn’t radioed. That meant one of two things. Either they were so busy that they couldn’t get to a radio at the moment, or they didn’t have anything new to report, so they were avoiding checking in. _Or well there’s another option. They don’t have any good news to report, so they aren’t checking in. Let’s hope, it’s something else._ She thought before she felt the Second in Command lean over her shoulders to peer into the data flitting across the screen.

“And this is current?”

“Yes ma’am. Their beacons are still broadcasting so-”

“Yeah I get it, they haven’t been shot down; they are just being radio silent. Well that stops right now.” Jill reached down and opened a channel to the leader of the squadron of jets. “Agent Y, pick up your communiqué when home base calls you.” She admonished when she heard the line connect.

“Agent J! I uh, I’m sorry ma’am! It’s just the action has been _so intense-_ ”

“Save it soldier, and give me a status report.” Jillian ordered and leaned against the console in front of her with one arm. It hurt to stand, but if she sat now, she was sure she wouldn’t get up for a week. She glanced over her shoulder when she heard one of the examining tables groan as someone shifted their weight on it.

Jack carefully made his way over to the communications area inside the room. It was not as fancy as the stuff in the commander center of the Platform, but it worked well enough. He scrunched his eyebrows when he didn’t recognize the man on the other side of the screen either. _I must have hit my head…_ he thought absently as the subordinate gathered enough wits to properly respond.

“We’ve lost sight of them ma’am. They just zipped into some of the caves around here. But don’t worry!” he hastened to add when he saw both of his commanding officers faces darken with anger. “I sent a missile right into the caves. They’ll be stuck in a cave-in, if it didn’t crush them flat.” He said with a smile inching its way onto his face. He was sure they’d be at least mollified by the news. Instead he got to watch as their faces went from anger to surprised and then boomerang right into pure rage. They looked like they were going to skin him alive.

“Agent Y, you do realize we don’t know where those caves empty out right? They could be stuck, but knowing Plasmius, there is more than _one_ exit out of that cave system. The only thing you’ve done is cut off _our_ entrance to them, and our ability to continue pursuit!”

“Ma’am! There’s no way the rocks coming from the ceiling didn’t crush them to death.”

“Don’t be an idiot soldier! These creatures can walk through walls. All he’d have to do is turn the RV intangible and the rocks would pass right through them.” Jack paused to let the information sink into his underlings’ mind. _Of all the incompetent morons! It’s a shame Agent H got killed in action earlier today facing 2 nd Priority, she was much more capable._ Jack mused through a now throbbing headache right between his eyes. He turned away from the gapping fish of a jet pilot and back towards the medic. “Please tell me you’ve got something for a headache over there. Something _good_. I don’t want it to knock me out, but you’d better hand me something other than baby aspirin.” Jack grumbled while walking back over to the examining table he’d previously been using as a bed. He sat on top of it, and left the verbal dressing down he knew was coming to Jill. He didn’t have the tolerance for it at the moment. He would have just fired the useless dipshit on the spot. But recruits were hard to come by these days, and they’d just lost-God he didn’t even know how many- in this failed assault. So despite his screw-up costing them another chance to chase down the hybrids, he was worth keeping around with a serious demotion. _This cracker-jack is never leading anyone again if I have anything to say about it._

Jill heard Jack groan as her tirade started up. She knew his head was killing him, but she was too completely pissed off to care. They’d just cashed in years worth of good will and favors to get this full assault financed and authorized, and this asshole just blew up their only lead to following the hybrids. _Fuck this guy, who placed him in charge of anything?_ She knew it wasn’t productive to chew out her subordinates, but at this point, it was the only thing she could do, and she wasn’t in a charitable mood. “You goddamn empty headed jackass! Do you have any idea how much effort you’ve-how many _people’s_ lives whose sacrifice you’ve just wasted? I-”

“Ma’am I hate to interrupt you during a good rant, but Secretary Dirk Muller has been trying to get into contact with you both for the last hour. I told him you were both unconscious, but I can’t keep delaying him. He didn’t seem to believe me the first time I told him that.” The communications officer said.

“No that’s alright. Tell him we just woke up, and that we need to get a status update from all our departments before we can talk. Tell him we’ll talk in about half an hour. Patch him though to the command center at that time and the Head Commander and I will deal with him.” Jill set her mouth into a thin line. “You’re lucky we have to deal with this, but I can promise this conversation isn’t over. Once we’re back in HQ, I want the name of your base and your commanding officer.” She dismissed the jet squadron leader and turned around to face Jack.

He was still sitting on the examining table, holding his head, but he took a deep breath and looked up at Jillian. “So how badly are we fucked?” he asked with a little amusement in his voice. At any other time he’d be furious, but the head trauma was making it hard to stay mad.

“Well, we have half an hour to figure out what happened, and come up with an excuse to Dirk as to why we didn’t catch the hybrids. So, not too bad. I mean we’ve explained that mess in Amity four years ago, this should be a piece of cake.” She reasoned with a shrug, though she wasn’t anywhere near as confident as she sounded. They’d had more allies four years ago for one, and the Head Commander didn’t have a head injury for another. In any case, they’d figure out a way through this like they always did. _First things first, we need to talk to our troops and see how badly this went._

20 minutes later, the answer to the question of “how badly?” was “pretty goddamn terrible.”  They’d not only lost an enormous amount of equipment, 8 out of 10 of the Air Platforms were irreparably damaged, dozens of jets, hundreds of guns and thousands of munitions,  they’d lost over one hundred good men and women and injured nearly three hundred more. In between those pilots lost earlier today and the damage to Amity Park and the tanks at Wisconsin and- it was just a never ending nightmare. It wasn’t as if these things were easily replaceable. Not even counting the devastating loss in man power, which was completely priceless in her opinion, the costs of replacing the broken equipment alone would eat into this year’s surplus. _I guess we can forget about Christmas bonuses this year._ Jillian mentally groused before rubbing her sore wrist. It had already been set, but she’d refused to have it placed in a cast just yet. She still had to report to Dirk, and if he saw her sporting a cast, it would give him an even worse impression of how things went, and they didn’t need that at this point.

“Please tell me all the bodies are at least identifiable. I don’t want to have to delay giving people back their family members because we can’t tell one person from another.”

“Everyone is pretty much indentified, except for a group of pilots who died in a multi-plane wreckage earlier today. Their bodies are too charred to identify right off, but everyone who died in the valley has already been tagged. We just need to notify their families when we arrive back in D.C.”

 _Thank God for small miracles._ It wasn’t much, but getting his people back quickly was something he prided himself on. There was nothing worse than hanging in limbo for a week or more while a coroner tried to pick apart one person from another. Still, this entire operation had been a disaster. Plasmius and especially 2 nd Priority had been much stronger than the encounter two years back. This was despite the fact 2nd Priority had been encountered not a full 6 hours before this.

Now there was just the matter of analyzing the massive amount of data from this fight. He truly didn’t envy the men and women working in the data retrieval sector of his organization today. There was a never ending amount of it. Black boxes from the crashed jets, Levitators, and Air Platforms, the recordings and readings from the various tools and instruments, and even from the suits of the fighting GSU soldiers all had to be downloaded, organized, and sifted through. The background noise had to be filtered out, the old data found and discarded, and the novel pieces transferred back to HQ for further study.

 _Then again, I’m not exactly looking forward to my conversation with Secretary Muller either._ There was not one discernible piece of good news to give him. Between the destroyed equipment and the death of his men, Dirk would have been frustrated enough as is, but for all of this to happen with nothing to show for it… _If only we’d just caught one of those little bastards. Then I’d be able to justify this massive waste of time._ Jack groaned as an extra large sharp pain shot through his forehead. He’d concluded the headache was as much from stress as injury, and it wasn’t likely to improve any time soon.

“The only thing we have left to do for now is lock that mysterious hybrid’s energy signature into the system. I’m sure he’ll show up again sometime, and being able to track him on the network will help us find the others.” One of the technicians offered from in front of the set of computers that were connected to the rest of their tracking systems.

He nodded in agreement, and in a couple strokes of the keyboard, the hybrid’s energy was uploaded into the satellites monitoring ghost activity around the globe.

“Sir, Secretary Muller is on the line.”

“Patch him through.” _No sense putting it off any longer_.

“Commander, how nice it is to finally speak with you. I heard from one of your subordinates that you and Jillian were incapacitated. I’m glad to see you’ve recovered so quickly.” Dirk’s icy smile beamed out of the large display screen in the command center. What was left of the brittle smile vanished in an instant, swallowed up by a look that could only be described as thunderous. “Now, you plan on telling me where in the Sam Hill you screwed the pooch?”

 _Well the pleasantries disappeared quickly…_ ”Sir, we may have underestimated the capabilities of the mysterious hybrid we tracked here.” Jillian offered gingerly.

“So you’re trying to tell me that one teenage boy threw off your entire plan?” The Secretary hissed darkly.

“No sir, it would be fair to say that both Plasmius and 2nd Priority have increased in strength well beyond the projections of even our most ambitious models. Either we’ve done our math wrong, or they’ve found a way to get more powerful even faster than we previously thought possible.” Jack answered and stepped next to his Second in Command.

“That’s bullshit Jack and you know it. I’m reading the data that you sent over, and while both of them were much stronger than before, and even ahead of all of your models, it’s nothing you should have been unable to handle.” Muller stopped to set down the set of preliminary reports he’d been reading. “You know what I think the problem was?” Dirk frowned at the tired looking officers standing nearly half way across the country. “I think the problem was poor leadership. Now, normally, I know the both of you are more than capable of turning any ghost inside out or bringing any problem to heel, but this isn’t an ordinary circumstance. Neither of you have historically made the best decisions when it comes to the two adults leading the hybrids, and I think the thirst for vengeance clouded your vision. Now make no mistake,” he held up a hand when they looked ready to interrupt, “you’ve done a lot better than I think any other person in this same situation could have done hands down. If I didn’t know how well you usually perform, I’d chalk it up to you making the best of a crap shoot in terms of chances. But I _do_ know you both can do better, which is why I’m so disappointed. I’d say that in the future I’d suggest you don’t lead the mission yourself, but I don’t know a single person who’d make a good field replacement for you two in this situation, so I’ll just give you the same advice my first commanding officer gave me. ‘Suck it the fuck up’ his exact words mind you.”

“Sir, I know-”

“Damn it I _know_ you know, and that’s why this is so frustrating. I know you can do better, you know you can do better, and we both know even as badly as you did, _no one_ could have handled it better. That’s not the issue here. What am I supposed to tell your detractors back in Washington? ‘Well, gosh I know this looked like a clusterfuck, but just think of how badly it _could_ have gone if someone else had led?’” Dirk set his forehead into his hand, “that’s just not going to cut it. I called in a lot of my personal favors to get you that authorization Jack, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to fight off all the vultures after your funding after this.”

“They can’t cut our funding! We’ve been _making_ them money for years, they _owe_ us that money.”

“I know that too, but they don’t see it that way. Look, you know as well as I do, that the average sheeple doesn’t understand what it is you all do. You’ve eradicated ghosts so well that most of them have forgotten how truly nasty it used to be. A bunch of youngsters with big dreams running around in the Capital now-a-days, mucking everything up.” Dirk paused and shifted his gaze from Jillian to Jack and back again. “You understand that I’m completely ass out here. I promised the president a hybrid, at least one, would either be dead or captured, and you’re telling me neither of those things have happened. Just what do you expect me to do about this?”

“Nothing Dirk. I’m going to be back in Washington in a few hours. I’ll deal with them tomorrow.”

“Damn right you will, because they’ve called an emergency hearing about your competency as soon as I had to report the mission wasn’t a glowing success. These jackals want your head Jack, and they smell blood in the water.”

“Dirk, I’ve dealt with worse before, I had to convince a whole planet that ghosts were real remember? I can handle some pencil pushing show ponies who want to make their constituents think they are doing something against government expenditures. Trust me.”

“You’d better handle it, because it would be a shame to see you fired over some bull like this when I know no one else can handle it. Or worse, see the whole agency dismantled by funding hungry piranhas. I’ll see you at the hearing tomorrow morning then.”

Jack nodded as the picture faded to black. He rocked back into his seat behind the main table in the command center with a loud sigh. That could have gone a lot worse. He was lucky it was Dirk on the phone and not the president or, even more appalling, the Secretary of State Fitzgerald. That man was a bear on a good day, and he wasn’t in the mood to deal with him now. He looked up as one of the technicians called his name. “Take us home. Make sure the rest of the ground troops have regrouped before we head out and make arrangements for the rest of the tanks that can’t be air lifted at the moment to get transportation home.” Jack closed his eyes when he heard Jillian settle next to him in her seat.

No one else in the room was as disappointed as he was, and the only thing he could think about was Jillian’s warning that he should have sat this one out. Dirk was being nice by passing the blame equally onto both of them, but he knew as well as anyone that those admonishments had really been meant for him. _I let my demons get the best of me._ And he didn’t have to pick a specific demon; there were plenty of bad memories to pick on.

Austin two years ago, Amity four years ago, Wisconsin eight years ago, all failures. He had a record for success, some would even call it impressive, but it was all the times that hadn’t mattered. He’d trade every other victory and captured ghost just to put Plasmius’ head on a pike. He’d trade his entire career to make sure none of it had ever happened. _One stupid argument_ …it was funny when he thought of it that way. _So much for regrets…_ She’d made her choice a long time ago, and if she wanted to chose a monster over him, he’d make sure they _both_ got to watch as he made their lives burn.

At least, that’s what he always told himself before he got a chance to look at her again. _Sympathy for the devil._ Jack told himself while settling farther into his seat for a good long nap. He’d have a lot to do back in Washington, so it was better to rest now. He wanted her to suffer just as much as he did, but in an entirely different way. _Sympathy for the devil that wears a dress. I’ll kill her happiness the same way she killed mine. I loved her once; she deserves to live at least._ Plasmius was a completely different ball game. He still wasn’t convinced he hadn’t hypnotized her. Even if he hadn’t, he had a particular kind of hell waiting for that demon. He’d make sure they both burned, in their own way, even if it was the last thing he ever did.

 

* * *

 

 

“Jasmine, get the door! Daniel, get up here and help me with his legs!” Maddie ordered in a tone the brokered no arguments.

The siblings immediately stopped bickering and jumped into action. They didn’t know exactly what the emergency was, but their mother didn’t use that tone unless it was serious.

Jasmine was outside holding the door open before she even got a good look at her father. “Oh my God-”

“Stay calm sweetie. I need you to get the medical supplies from the Hover. Do you remember which crate they are in?” Maddie asked while shifting around her eldest son to let him get a good hold on Vlad’s legs. She was already making a list of the supplies she would need in her head. _I hope he doesn’t get an infection from this cave._

“Yes I remember, but where do you need them?” Jasmine stepped out of the way as her brother and mother descended the stairs to the RV. She shoved the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach away. There wasn’t time to be weak.

“Set them in the back chamber. Danny,” Maddie stopped to call back into the RV, “I need you to clear off a space in the back of the cave where I can work.” She stopped and hoisted more of her husband’s weight when she felt him slip.

Danny fumbled with his seat belt, before bounding down the stairs and out of the RV. He skidded to a stop when he saw his otherworldly twin struggling to stay on his feet while carrying Vlad. He looked to him, then the light coming from farther in the cave, and back again before making a snap decision. The ghost teen rushed over to Daniel and muscled him out of the way. “I’ve got him.”

Daniel was about to argue the rough treatment when he realized how much faster Danny was moving than he had been. _At least he’s not totally useless._ He raced back to the back chamber and cleared out some space on a flat surface, working so fast that a few things were just swept onto the floor. He heard his sister call from the entrance to the chamber and rushed over to help her set up a make-shift infirmary. “You go. I’ll set up things here. You’re the one who knows where everything is.” He said while grabbing the last of the items from her arms.

Jasmine nodded and barely avoided colliding with Danny and Maddie on their way into the chamber. “I just need to grab a generator!”

“Bring one of the new ones.”

That last request startled Daniel. As far as he knew, the newest generators were powered by ghost energy, which could be tracked without a shield. They made up for the possibility of discovery with efficiency, renewability and cost, but after just being chased by the GSU…“Shouldn’t we set up a shield if we are going to use those?”

“Not enough time. Besides, I’m not going to use it power the lights.” Maddie answered after setting down her charge. She grabbed a pair of scissors and went to work on what was left of Vlad’s shirt. After tossing the ripped material to the ground somewhere behind her, she set to work organizing the tools she’d need to stem the bleeding. She gasped when she looked down at the wound. It was even larger than before! It wasn’t as if the edges had torn, it was like it was deepening and widening all on its own.

“Why isn’t it healing?” Daniel pondered while handing his mother a roll of gauze.

“He took the injury in his ghost form, so it shouldn’t be this bad. It’s why he stayed in ghost form for so long. I don’t understand…” Maddie cleared away some of the blood before looking back at Daniel. “Do you think you could induce a transformation for me? I need to get a good look at the original injury.”

“I-” He stopped before answering in the affirmative. Usually, it’d be no problem at all, but he was so drained, that he wasn’t sure he’d be able to turn a pin invisible, let alone transform himself or his father. “I just don’t think I have the strength.” He admitted with a silent bitter curse on his own weakness.

“I could do it. Um, if someone talked me through what had to be done.” Danny offered from a few feet away. He watched as Jasmine carried in the small generator and set it next to the quickly cobbled together infirmary bed.

“Jasmine, could you set up some lights closer to us?” Maddie finished checking his vitals and pressed harder on the wounds to help the bleeding. She’d already inspected it for the debris or some other source of the bleeding, to no avail. Despite the fact the wounds continued to deepen, there was nothing cutting into him. _At least in this form…_ “Danny, all I need you to do is transform with your hands placed over his chest. That should be enough to start the transformation. After that, you have to pour energy into him like you’re building an ecto-energy attack in your hands.” She nodded her thanks to her daughter when the lights flipped on connected to the battery in the back.

Danny stepped forward and followed the instructions to the letter. He sighed in relief when Vlad transformed without any other prompting on his part. He was so distracted by the fact it had worked so easily, that he nearly forgot to continue to pour out his energy. “Sorry about that” He said after he watched the other halfa’s black rings frizzle back out.

The Masters’ matriarch had used the time Danny was settling in next to Vlad to start the process of converting the spectral generators to exude their energy not in the form of electricity, but spectral energy again. She handed the wires over to her eldest son to finish up the task for her, and headed back to her husband’s side. “I hope you’re not squeamish Danny,” she said while plunging a pair of forceps into one of the open wounds. It pressed back on the edges of the injury and revealed a piece of metal no bigger than her pinky. She frowned when she finally got a good look at the metal. “This is coated in ectoranium. No wonder it’s only getting worse, this stuff is eating through him from the inside.”

“You know I’m so glad I don’t faint when I see blood or anything because that’d be terrible.” Danny wasn’t a wuss when it came to blood and guts, slasher movies and his own injuries from ghost hunting had made him pretty stalwart, but this was pretty freakin’ gross.

“You’re right that _would_ be terrible. It would mean you’d stop being a battery, and considering that’s your only use at the moment…” Daniel trailed off as he finished the last of the work needed to convert the generator. “Finishing this now means you are completely useless.”

“Hey, you don’t have to be such a-”

“Do. Not. Bicker.” Maddie commanded as she pulled out a few more pieces of metal. _How in the world did these get into him?_ She supposed the reason wasn’t as important as getting them out. Every second they stayed inside increased the chances of a fatal ectoranium exposure. Typically, his energy would neutralize such a small amount, but with all the energy he’d expended and all the blood he’d lost, that wasn’t going to happen. If it kept up, the stuff would end up circulating back to his core, and when _that_ happened-no she wouldn’t think about that. It wasn’t going to happen.

“Where do you need these leads connected?” Daniel ask holding up two intimidating looking clamps.

Maddie pointed it out as Danny steeped as far away as he could while still being in contact. Daniel attached the clamps and retreated to flip the switch to turn on the generator. With a nod, the two boys timed the switch so that there wasn’t a loss of energy, and so that Danny only got a mild tingle of energy.

Danny lingered around inside the back chamber a few seconds after the Masters siblings had vacated, shooed off by Maddie insisting a room to work alone. Seeing Vlad so badly hurt was eating at him. _This is all basically my fault._ “He’s going to be alright, right? I mean, Vlad’s tough-”

“Danny, I need to work, so if you could go back out in the front of the cave? I’ll call you if you’re needed, until then, why don’t you help everyone else set up?” Maddie didn’t even look up from her work. She had to make sure she got every sliver of metal…

Before Danny had even gotten into the forward chamber all the way, Daniel was upon him.

“You moronic worthless piece of Ent dung!” Daniel swung his fist directly into the other boy’s mouth. He regretted not having the energy to send a punch enhanced with ghost strength into his chomps, but this would have to do. He dragged the other dark haired teen up from the floor, fists full of his shirt. “My father could _die_ because of you! Do you have any idea what in the name of-of the Emperor you’ve done?” He gave the Danny an extra large shake and stared him down.

“Dude, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. It was just a-”

“Do you really think I give a flying fudge? Do you?!” He shook the other teen again and drew back his fist for another punch. This time though, Danny turned intangible and slipped out of his grasp. “You’re more trouble than I could have possibly _imagined_! I should have put a cauterized hole through your chest the moment I saw you!”

“Damn it man! I know you’re mad-”

“MAD!? I’m not mad, I’m utterly enraged. I’m so ticked off if I had the energy, I’d-I’d…I can’t even _think_ straight.” Daniel threw up his arms before crossing them and giving the dolt across from him his most ferocious glare.

“Wow, it takes a lot to make him speechless, congratulations. I don’t think that’s ever happened before. Maybe we should carve it on the tomb stone when we bury your ass. ‘Here lies Jackass: So unfathomably stupid even Daniel can’t think of a proper insult strong enough to describe him.”

“I really am sorry-”

“Oh sooo sorry you are. So sorry you destroyed our Camp and got us shot at, and nearly got us all killed. So sorry you destroyed an important cache. So sorry good sir, my mistake.” Daniel sneered. “You want to make it up to us? You’re going to start by answering every single question. And if you even think of refusing to answer, I’ll slap a bracelet on you, take the twins’ bracelets off, and have them phase you to your neck into the floor. _Then_ Jasmine can use that empty skull of yours for fudging target practice.”

“I’ve had just about enough of your attitude! I know you don’t like me, and that I’ve royally _fucked up_. You don’t need to rub my face in it; you arrogant prick. You wanna fight so badly? Then come over here and throw ghost rays like a _real_ halfa instead of using your brothers as a shield.”

“Shield! You Ork-faced twit! You want to talk cowardice? You’re using my father’s trust, my mother’s good graces, and my whole Danish filled family as a shield. You think you’re such hot ginger snapping strudel, then why don’t you go fly right to DC, and tell the GSU where to shove it?”

“Oh yeah? Well why don’t _you_ then since you’re so much better and more powerful than I am, mister know it goddamn all-”

“If I had my way,-” Jasmine started before Danny interrupted.

“Yeah well you don’t!” Danny screamed back, and then sent a glare at both Jazz and Daniel. “You both are worse than your parents! What gives you the right to just antagonize me like this?”

“Because you’re the one who brought the enemy to the middle of our freakin’ lives. If you hadn’t shown up, none of this would have happened.” Jasmine stated matter-of-factly.

“If I hadn’t shown up, _none_ of you would EXIST!”

“Who do you think are you!?” Daniel screamed incredulously.

“My name’s Danny Fenton! And I’m from the alternate reality that got ground up to make yours happen!”


	15. If It's Answers You're Seeking...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A standoff, a trading of stories, and a destination.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the final chapter I have pre-written and cross-posted from fanfiction.net. So prepare for a longer waits between chapters.

For a full five seconds, nothing could be heard except the steady drip drop of water from the cave ceiling to the floor. In the stunned silence, Danny had just enough time to regret having ever opened his mouth, before the eldest Masters sibling found her wits.

“You-you’re what?” Jasmine stammered out. Of all the things she’d expected to come out of his mouth, _another apology, more lies, definitely more curse words_ , that statement hadn’t been anywhere on her radar.

“I, I um-”

“Oh, oh good _God_ , he’s insane! Completely delusional, totally _One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest_ gone. What institution did you escape from? Did you leave the rest of your common sense there too?” Daniel said before moving to stand next to his sister.

“I’m not crazy! I-what’s the point? I can’t tell you anyway.” Danny crossed his arms before leaning tiredly against one of the many stalagmites reaching towards the sky. _Well, it’s not like I was going to avoid a smiting at this rate. Still, my dad is their mortal enemy and well…I doubt they’re going to be any more willing to let me stay if I explain **how** Jack Fenton is my father._

“Can’t tell us? Oh come on now, don’t leave us hanging! You just got to the good stuff. You’re from an alternate reality that got destroyed so that we can exist? Man that’s good, maybe I should write that down, I can use it in the fictionalization of my life for Hollywood or something.”

“Knock it off Daniel, this is serious, I mean this is the first remotely honest thing we’ve gotten out of him. So your last name is Fenton right?” Jasmine fixed her most neutral look onto her face. Calling Danny “skittish” was typically an understatement, and if her parents had taught her anything, it was feigning neutrality could fix all types of problems.

“Yeah it is.” Danny huffed and looked away from his sister’s penetrating gaze. He’d just admitted as much a minute ago, not like repeating it was going to get him into any more trouble. Although, he’d have to be sure not to let anything else out until he could think of a good reason for the outburst from earlier.

“Ok, so you are Danny Fenton. If you aren’t from ‘here’” the red head paused and actually unfolded her arms make the air quotes, “then where-when-are you from?”

“Well-”

“Why are you indulging his fantasies? He’s obviously some plant from the GSU. Sugar cookies, he’s done his job _twice_ already. Once in Wisconsin, and just a few minutes ago at Camp, well what used to be Camp anyway. It doesn’t matter what false hypno-memories they’ve implanted in his brain, we need to tell Mom and-”

“Woah! Wait! You can’t just-I mean, I don’t have any false memories. These are all real, and I’m not a plant or spy or something. They were just trying to kill me; you can’t honestly believe I work for people who were trying to kill me?”

“The GSU hates all ghosts, and they still have captured ghosts on leashes doing their bidding. What are you some type of shape shifting ghost? Thought you could just slither in here and rat us out to your psychotic ‘Father’ and his little followers, and oh well if you died, no big deal! You’d love to die in service to your human overlords.” Daniel shot back.

“ _No_. None of that is true. I’m not a ghost; I’m a halfa just like you or Vlad.” At their increasingly skeptical looks, he put his hands up. “I swear. I’m serious. I’m not lying.”

“Right, just like you weren’t lying about how you couldn’t remember what day it was, or that your mother was Harriet Chin.”

“I really _did_ lose days, and ok, that part was a lie, but the rest of what I’ve told you wasn’t! Vlad really is an old family friend, that’s not a lie. He’s really is a family friend of my mother too, so-”

“So who’s your mother?” the elder girl asked.

“Um, she’s…” he trailed off grasping for a good lie. He’d already admitted Harriet wasn’t his mother, and with Vlad so universally hated, that left him with no real options. _A little truth never killed anyone right? Well as far as I know._  “Well we have the same mom.”

The two Masters siblings shared a look before glancing behind them to the softly glowing section of the cave near the back. Their mother had been working diligently for at least an hour now, and they could still hear the soft whirl of the generator working to keep their father in ghost form, and possibly alive.

“You expect us to believe that we have the same mother? Are you seriously suggesting that we didn’t notice her-”

“Now, now Jasmine,” Daniel interrupted, “you’re forgetting he’s from alternate reality. So he totally could have been incubating in an alternate version of our mother who is apparently still on good terms with Jack Fenton or something. Is that about right?” When Danny didn’t answer, he rolled his eyes and squared off to face his doppelganger again. Taking a better look at the other boy, he could see parts of his face that eerily matched his own. If he didn’t know for sure there was no way they were related, he would think they were _twins_. _As if I need anything else weird to happen in my life._

“Listen, I’m being as honest about this as I can. I don’t know how much I can tell you without causing more problems.”

“I don’t see how. If you really _are_ from an alternate reality, then it’s an alternate version that no longer exists, and so, telling us about it isn’t going to affect this one in any way. That is, unless you are from the past or future of this universe instead of a different one entirely. In that case any information you tell us, especially about the future, could adversely affect the present to the point the entire timeline becomes unstable and shifts. But if that were the case, it’s likely you’d be unable to relay to us any information we wouldn’t be able to discern ourselves, thus avoid violating causality. Ergo, spill the beans.” Daniel said with a confident smile on his lips.

“I-you-what?” Danny scrunched his brows and blinked a few times before continuing, “is it physically impossible for you to use simple explanations or…? The point is, I can’t tell you anything, any details, about the alternate reality where I’m from. I shouldn’t have even told you I _was_ from an alternate reality or something, but I just can’t stop running my big mouth.”

“Well get your mouth back into gear, because you aren’t staying in this cave with us until you explain who you are _clearly_ for once. I don’t care if we have to march you back through the cave rubble and leave you outside with a ‘please pick up your trash GSU’ sign.” She walked over to one of the make-shift tables near the RV and picked up a weapon. It was one of the few that still held a charge, and she intended to use it if she had to. 

“Hold on, you can’t just start pointing guns at me and threatening to kick me out! I mean if you don’t trust me, Vlad does and-”

“And doing so could have gotten him killed! He’s bleeding with poisoned metal burrowing itself deeper into his body every second because either you can’t follow simple instructions, _or_ you are delusional brainwashed spy risking my family’s safety every moment you continue to draw breath. Personally, I’m no longer in the mood to find out which,” Jasmine said while clicking the mini-bazooka up a few notches. “Your options are, come clean about whatever it is you think you know, or get a hole blasted in you, and your body dumped a few feet in front of the cave entrance.”

“Are you really going to threaten me with that when I’m the only one with working ghost powers around?” Danny could feel his eyes already beginning to burn green from frustration and anger. “I don’t want to hurt you, or Daniel, or anyone here, but if you make me fight, you’ll regret it. I’m on _your_ side here, so put down that gun before I have to blow it up.” He raised a green ecto-energy covered hand towards the general direction of the eldest Masters sibling.

The air in the anterior chamber grew increasingly tense as Daniel moved besides his sister to grab another weapon and his otherworldly twin lifted another green swathed hand to match. A cold sweat trickled down the back of his neck. In any other situation, he’d be more than capable of handling a fight, but after the day he’d had a stiff breeze could knock him over. They had to be mindful of the GSU as well. Even though they had likely already headed back to their headquarters in DC with their remaining men, they had satellites everywhere watching for their spectral energy. Even under all these tons of rock, there was no guarantee that they couldn’t sense even the small amount of energy the other dark haired teen had summoned. Just the same, he wasn’t about to back down from a fight with a likely ghost plant.

“What the hell is going on out here?” Maddie growled as she walked from the entrance to the posterior chamber into the room proper. She frowned as none of the teens involved in a poorly thought out Mexican standoff answered her. “Jasmine, Daniel, where are the twins and Lizzie?”

“Inside the RV, playing some tedious board game or watching a video.” When her mother only frowned further she continued, “I don’t know what they’re doing in there. They aren’t messing around with any systems, and they aren’t fooling around out here.”

 “Fine. What are _you_ and your brother doing with those guns pointed at Danny?”

“Our favorite fudge-up was just explaining how he’s from an alternate reality, Jack Fenton is his father, and he’s not a brainwashed ghost spy. Personally I don’t believe any of it but-”

“It’s true.” Maddie stated matter-of-factly before taking two large steps and grabbing the weapons from her now stunned children’s hands. “What I mean is, he’s managed to convince your father and me that that is the truth. I believed him, for the most part, and was going to finish questioning him tomorrow morning. However, I think due to the circumstances it warrants a revisiting of the subject right now.” She set the guns back onto the table and turned to face Danny with her children to her right. “Now, let’s see, you never _did_ answer how you knew my husband in your original timeline, so let’s start there.”

Even though Maddie had set down the guns the teenagers had picked up, he could see her tapping her foot and palming another smaller weapon on her hip. _That’s not a rhetorical question is it?_ “Um, it’s kinda a long story?” He offered with a chuckle. When it failed to get even the smallest smirk onto anyone’s lips, his laughter faded into a cough. “Well, you know you, Jack, and Vlad all went to the University of Wisconsin together? Well, when you and Jack were first married you just uh, never got divorced or whatever. You had Jazz,” he resisted the urge to sigh when he saw his sister scrunch up her face at the nickname, “and me.” The boy out of time paused to look for something to lean against now that the adrenaline crash was leaving his muscles even more tired and sore than before the hectic drive up the mountain.

“Well?” The auburn hair scientist prompted and watched him slink over to sit on top of one of the flatter stalagmites.

“Well uh, I grew up in Amity Park, and on the 20th anniversary of your college graduation, you went to a college reunion hosted at Vlad’s house-er well closer to a mansion really-in Wisconsin. That’s the first time I met him. He was, well it doesn’t really matter.”

“I beg to differ. I’ll decide what is and isn’t important information. Vlad told me you came back into the past so that the two of you would no longer be enemies. Obviously your first impressions of him are important for me to understand what would possess you to try something so completely ill advised.” She softened her stance and leaned back against the table behind her to take some pressure off of her aching feet. She’d been up for what felt like years, and while she was sure Vlad would pull through with little problem- _bless his determination_ -it’d probably be touch and go for the rest of the night.

“Well he hosted the reunion so he’d have a chance to kill my dad and convince you to marry him, so I’d say my first impression of him was shitty. That answer your question? Oh, and after he realized I had ghost powers, he decided to pull a Darth Vader and ask me to join the dark side. So yeah, we weren’t best buds where I’m from.”

Daniel let out a rude snort at the other boy’s story. “You expect us to actually believe our dad wants to kill yours in your ‘timeline’? For what? When he can’t even do that now?”

“Don’t interrupt him Daniel; I want to hear everything he has to say _without_ your more colorful commentary. So, Vlad and you met at this reunion, and he tried to murder Jack Fenton. I assume he failed.”

“Yeah, I stopped him, with some quick thinking and some luck. After that we’ve been at each other’s throats ever since. I mean, he placed a bounty on my head-”

“I thought he wanted you to be his new Sith apprentice?”

“Wuh, oh he did.” Danny stopped before scrunching his face up in thought and continuing, “I think it was just to make my dad look bad. What with him trying and failing to capture the million dollar ghost with the entire ‘professional’ ghost community around also trying to catch me. I think it was also a distraction for something. I don’t know what, everything he does has at least three different reasons and a plan F.”

“The next most pressing question is of course _where_ you got ghost powers.”

“In a lab accident.” Danny  replied.

“A lab accident where? The more specific you are the better.”

“It was my parents-your lab. You have a lab right underneath our house in the basement. You were building a working model of a man-made ghost portal. It didn’t work when you first plugged it in, even though this was like the fifth time you’d brought Jazz and me down to watch it get turned on and probably the 50th time you’d tried to make it work. Anyway, you left all defeated and me and my friends-”

“You and your friends were downstairs in a dangerous lab unsupervised?”

“Uh, well…yes. You left to go upstairs. We weren’t really thinking about it working. I mean you didn’t have any weapons just lying around or anything, it was just the portal and one of the lame Fenton jumpsuits.”

“Jumpsuits? Like that tacky ensemble you have going on in your ghost form?” It was Jasmine’s turn to interrupt.

“ _Yes._ Exactly like that.” Danny grumbled under his breath before continuing, “my friends convinced me to go take a look inside the portal, just to snap a picture.”

“Why would you-”

“We thought it would cool ok? It had nev- we didn’t think it would even _work_. No one did. No one had even really _seen_ a ghost back in my timeline. I hadn’t, and despite what my parents said, I don’t think they had either. It was just a stupid joke, it wasn’t supposed to work. I-” Danny took a deep breath to stop his rambling before it got out of hand. It had been almost a year since the accident and it still both boggled and upset him. Even though he, and several of the people standing around, were living proof that half-ghosts were real, when he thought about the accident, it was still hard to wrap his mind around it. “I put on one of my parents dorky jumpsuits and stepped inside the portal. One of my friends was angling for a better shot and asked me to back up. I did and leaned my hand against the wall inside the portal. I turned it on. It gave me ghost powers. That’s the end of that story.”

Maddie tapped her chin with one finger as she took in Danny’s tale. It was, as far as she could tell, entirely the truth. There was still some details missing, like who his friends were and why, _why, **why**_ no one came running when that portal activated and discovered his powers right then. Just the same, it would suffice for the moment.

“Next question, you told me before that the ghost hunting community in Amity Park was in shambles. In fact, you said they needed your help to catch ghosts, despite having professional ghost hunters around.” She paused to hop onto the table behind her, forgoing a better position for offense in favor of her comfort. _If I stand up any longer, I don’t think I’ll ever feel my lower limbs again._ “If you were fighting ghosts on the regular, how did your parents not notice?”

“Notice?” Danny squeaked, not liking where this line of questioning was going.

“Surly, someone must have figured out you were fighting. At the very least, you wouldn’t have been proficient in either martial arts or your ghost powers when you first started. If ghosts were enough of a problem that two professionals couldn’t stem the tide, then you’d have to have taken some injuries from fighting. How did you continue to go to school while ghost hunting? The physical changes resulting from a-an integration of ghost powers into a fully formed human body are incredibly noticeable. Didn’t their equipment ever pick you up?”

“Well, um, yes?” Danny offered sheepishly.

“Yes to what Danny?” Maddie clicked her tongue in distaste before shifting on the hard table beneath her.

“Yes their equipment picked me up, but they just thought the equipment wasn’t working. No one knew halfas existed so, they just assumed the readings were borked. As for the other questions, my friends helped me out with ghost hunting, but I wasn’t doing the best in school when I left. I was tired from the fights even though I’d gotten better and uh, well you know half ghosts heal fast so…” Danny trailed off and scuffed a foot against the side of the stalagmite.

“Alright, I suppose that’s good enough, although the last, and most important question is, how you got here. How did you time travel at all?”

Danny suppressed the urge the wince. That was the one question he _really_ didn’t want to answer. “I thought I already answered that question?”

“Hardly. You told me you got the time traveling Medallion from a powerful ghost whose name you couldn’t tell me. While that basically answers the question in the general “how” the time traveling itself took place, that doesn’t explain why that ghost let you have the Medallion at all. You’ve said it was for unabashedly selfish purposes, don’t make that face it’s true, so I’m wondering what was in it for this ghost. If they were powerful enough to create this relic, then they likely have time traveling powers of their own, and would be well aware of the delicate the nature of time. My question is really how did you convince this ghost to allow you free reign of the time line? Certainly they would have foreseen that you’d cause trouble-”

“-Er well Cl-he said something about me being outside the time stream and the consequences being my own. He’s a friend of mine, and I’ve been responsible,” _well sort of_ , “with the Medallion in the past, so he figured I could handle this.”

Maddie took a breath to start another round of questioning, when she heard a loud groan echo from the back of the cave. She glanced behind her and mouthed ‘stay put’ to the teens, before getting up.

The teenagers spent a few minutes staring at each other across the distance before Jasmine broke the silence.

“So you’re telling me not a single person outside of the friends who saw the accident, and my dad, figured out you have ghost powers? The other ghosts you fought-”

“-Knew I had ghost powers and was human at the same time.” Danny answered with a shrug.

“And they never said anything to any of the humans around you? On top of that, I mean it’s not like your ghost form looks different from your human half, no hybrid’s does. I’m just having a hard time wrapping my head around this.” Jasmine sighed as the vague picture of the other teen’s timeline struggled to coalesce in her mind. Nothing about the reality he inhabited sounded anything like her own. _Why was it so different? Does that even matter at this point? It isn’t like Danny can get back to it._ She thought, coming to the same conclusion her younger brother had only half an hour ago. It was like the more he cleared up, the more numerous the questions became. “Why couldn’t you tell us any of this before?”

Danny huffed and crossed his arms in front of him. “Would you have really believed me?” He watched as the Masters’ siblings’ faces scrunched up in thought. “You didn’t believe me when I told you a few minutes ago, why would you have believed me in Wisconsin or on the flight over in that beetle thing? I know you might not believe me, but I’m not stupid.”

“That remains debatable.” Daniel quirked his lips and sighed. “Well, if you fought ghosts all the time that explains why you could hold your own against the GSU earlier. Although, I’m still a little confused about how you’d get all of that fighting experience in the first place. I mean how many ghosts could possibly squeeze through temporary portals, even in someplace as active as Amity Park?”

Danny scuffed his feet awkwardly against the damp stone floor of the cave before answering, “well they didn’t just have temporary portals to work with. For a while, the Fenton portal-”

“Oh you’re joking-”

“-Stop interrupting sheesh! Anyway, the man-made portal didn’t have a good lock on it. And it’s not very hidden in the ghost zone either. So ghosts were uh, slipping through the portal in my parents’ basement and escaping.” Danny shrugged at the mildly amazed looks the other teens were giving him.

“So you’re telling me not only was the portal not locked up tight and hidden on the ghost side, but ghost were _regularly_ slipping past your parents defenses and equipment to escape and wreck havoc?” Jasmine felt her face screwing up in disbelief the longer she thought about it. A man-made portal in the basement of two ghost hunters and ghosts just snuck through their house and out into the open. _No way either of them were that incompetent._

“Hey, I know that sounds kind of…impossible, but it’s the truth! Ghosts just aren’t taken as seriously back in my timeline as they here. I mean, up until about a year ago, no one was even sure they existed. They haven’t had a lot of time to adjust.” Danny shrugged and shifted on the top of his stone seat. Admittedly, the absolute reach and power the GSU had in this future was something he’d never thought was possible. The Guys in White back home were a cursory curiosity, barely funded and poorly trained. His friends could out fight them on half a night’s sleep and no food. And those ridiculous all white suits! _I’ve seen them put in more forms for dry cleaning than ghost catching._ Just the same, the agency here was run by…his father. He’d been avoiding really thinking about it. The man he knew, and the unhinged ghost slaying commander he’d met an hour back was like night and day.

Jack Fenton couldn’t remember to solder half of his own circuits, let alone run an agency, yet here he was the most serious threat to ghost kind on the planet. Danny took a deep breath, preparing to finally ask the other teens about some of their history, when a crash came from the back of the cave.

A shrill voice echoed from the chamber where Vlad was recovering, “I can’t believe you hid the fact he had ghost powers from me! Did you not think it was important? Has the ability to reveal our location to the people trying to murder us suddenly become a non-issue!? You promised me he wasn’t a threat, and here we are, _in a cave_ , with none of our equipment.”

“I instructed him specifically not to use his powers. It’s not like I didn’t know how dangerous this could be, give me some credit. And no I didn’t tell you, because that was his information to tell on not mine.” Vlad, clearly awoken from his injury induced slumber, half stomped half limped into the antechamber of the cave. He made it to a cluster of stalagmites a few feet into the make-shift room before leaning against them. Despite the hand on his stomach, he had a ferocious glare on his face. He breathed heavily into the growing silence, breath ragged, before standing straighter and continuing, “I had no reason to assume he’d disobey. Genuinely, I’d never put this family in danger, you know that.” He hissed out the last few words through pain clinched teeth and slumped back against the tallest stalagmite.

“Just because I know you wouldn’t do it on purpose, doesn’t mean it was alright to lie to me,” Maddie held her hand up before he could get a word in, “lying by omission is still lying Vladimir. I understand that you wanted to-”

“-I’m sure you do.” The sarcastic bite in the interruption could have peeled paint. “You know exactly why he’d want to work up to telling you about his ghost powers. I mean, it’s not like everyone has threatened to throw him out if they got a hint of a reason he was dangerous.”

“You’re deflecting! The problem isn’t him it’s _you_.” Maddie hissed.

“I’m not going to betray his good faith and privacy by telling you something he should have the right to-”

“Oh my God, this isn’t about privacy it’s about safety. Our safety is more important than his bashful whatever the hell it is preventing him from actually communicating with-”

“It’s not shyness, it’s prudence! When he last spoke to you, you thought he was a ghost plant sent to kill us. He doesn’t have any more reason to trust us than we do him. You’re being unreasonable.”

“You’re unreasonable…”

The married couple continued to bicker back in forth, oblivious to the awkward teenage audience shuffling their feet not a meter away. Jasmine and Daniel locked eyes and silently came to a conclusion. They waved a hand to get Danny’s attention, and silently the trio slipped farther away into another part of the cave.

Danny winced as the sound of continued arguments echoed away into the dark. Still, wherever the other two teens were headed, it had to be better than listening to them fight about him.

 

* * *

 

 

Jasmine reached into her pocket palming the cool silver disk inside. This far away from the heaters and generators of the larger chamber, the air was cool and clammy, like walking through an especially thick fog. She didn’t particularly dislike the cold, but after the unnatural heat of the rest of the cave, the change left her fighting back shivers. The disk felt like one of those ice packs placed in lunch boxes. It was cool, but nothing like an actual ice cube. She sighed when the argument behind her finally faded away into the plaintive plinks creating the ambient cave noise. Her right hand still ached like she’d twisted it wrong and slammed it into a wall at the same time. In the increasing gloom, it was hard to get a good look at her younger brother, but she didn’t need ghost enhanced night vision to tell he was just as exhausted. The scrapping shuffle of his sneakers against the hard stone combined with his slumped shoulders said enough. “Ok, that’s far enough I think.” She pulled the disk out of her pocket and gave it a shake. Slowly, the chemicals inside reacted to one another, becoming luminescent as she agitated them. The disk was artificially cooled so the light would slowly fade over the course of an hour or two until it was re-shaken.

Danny stopped just inside the sudden pool of light. He leaned against a wall with his arms crossed, keeping as much distance between him and the hostile siblings as he could manage. The ghost powered teen thought they had calmed down, but he didn’t put it past them to pull a gun on him. Their default solution to problems seemed to be shooting it until it wasn’t one anymore. _Considering what happened earlier today, it’s not such a bad solution in general._ “So...” He trailed off into the cool tense space between the three of them. _They must have brought me out here for something._

“So, I think we should trade stories, life stories I mean. Since you actually managed to be truthful for once, I realize you have no idea how serious-how _different_ this world is from your own. I mean, giant battle aside, do you have any idea what the GSU are like?” Jasmine let the question hang in the air for a second longer before continuing. “I think, to really understand where we are coming from, we need to tell you about the history of the GSU and a little bit about ourselves.”

“Even though I don’t like you, if you’re going to stop being a walking liability, we need to get you up to speed. Naturally, I still think this is a waste of our time and we’d all be better off leaving you on some back road to fend for yourself,” Daniel paused and stared at a spot in between Jasmine and Danny. “However, that’s not going to actually happen, much to my deep displeasure, so we need to mitigate damages.” He shrugged and pressed himself back against the wall opposite Danny.

The eldest Masters’ sibling frowned over at her brother before addressing Danny. “The first thing you need to know is that Jack Fenton’s only life goal is the eradication of the ghost species. He’ll stop at absolutely nothing to get that goal accomplished. You saw the mansion in Wisconsin?”

“Yeah sure-oh that’s probably rhetorical isn’t it?” Danny stuttered when he saw the annoyed look on the red haired girl’s face. “My bad.”

“Anyway, that’s where we lived before we moved to Amity Park. When I was almost six, the GSU, or well they were called the ‘Guys in White’ then, attacked the mansion. We barely escaped with our lives. Our father used the last of his assets, before they were frozen and relinquished to the government as the holdings of a ‘non-entity’, to craft new identities for us. We disappeared into the United States background. This was a long time ago, I don’t really remember much about it other than the fight at the mansion, and always running.” Jasmine stopped to rub at her sore wrist before locking eyes with Danny, “eventually, we settled in Amity Park.”

“Can I at least ask why? I mean when I was there, it was ghost hunter central. Was it different then or…?” Danny left the explanation open ended and rolled his shoulders. He was feeling a couple of landings from earlier and he’d much rather be sleeping than exploring the wacky past of this reality from Hell.

“It was a pretty active base for ghost hunters back then too. Our parents’ reasoning was that it would be easier to blend in right under the enemies’ noses. They were right for the most part.” Jasmine stopped to give her brother a quick glance. His face was as impassive as it had been since the conversation started. She nodded over at him to pick up where she left off. Talking about their time in Amity Park always left him skittish.

“We dyed our hair, wore colored contacts, and got our first set of spectral bracelets.” Daniel stopped to hold up his wrist, jingling the techno-jewelry with relish before lowering his arm. “We lived in Amity Park for nearly six years. We…made friends, went to school, blended in. It was unsafe at times, but relatively normal.” Daniel sat up straighter before leaning away from the wall. “We lived in ghost hunters’ HQ during the entire War. I’m sure the Head Commander,” he paused to sneer, “threw fits about that when he realized how long we’d been there.”

“War?” This time Danny had no idea what they were talking about. _How did an entire war happen without anybody talking about it?_

The eldest Masters’ boy smiled; it didn’t reach his eyes. “When Jack Fenton couldn’t get to us anymore, he convinced the GSU, they were called that now after the attack in Wisconsin, to wage war against the entire Ghost Zone. It…went well for them. Between my sixth birthday and my ninth, they captured, executed, or otherwise destroyed every piece of ghost civilization in the Zone. The last ghosts alive are either hidden deep inside the Ghost Zone, or held in the many, many experimental labs of the GSU. Most ghosts are either used as slaves or tortured and experimented on. We’re some of the last free sentient ghost-like being around, hybrids or not.” He leaned back against the clammy wall, shoulders tensed, a frown slowly deepening on his face. “In any case,” he started before loosening up once more, “we were eventually discovered.” Daniel stared off into the darkness back towards the front of the cave. He crossed his arms, his hands clenched involuntarily at his sides.

“Jack Fenton somehow discovered our secret identities.” She started sparing another surreptitious glance in her sibling’s direction. “He captured my brother, and our parents, mostly our dad actually, had to fight the whole ghost hunter collective in Amity Park to get him back. We escaped, obviously, and we’ve been on the run ever since.” Jasmine paused and stared down at her hand, swirling the disk in it unnecessarily. “That was almost five years ago, or it will be in a couple weeks. It’s been difficult to put it mildly.” Jasmine pinned their living headache with a look before continuing, “apparently, what we needed was for things to be shaken up. The Universe must have thought we’d become complacent, what with no major incidents in the last two years.” She tossed the disk to Daniel, to give her aching arm and wrist a break.

“Living on the run, it’s required us to be both paranoid and resourceful, something I imagine you’re familiar with considering you interesting life choices these last few months.” He stopped and swirled the disk another few times, thinking his words through. It had been a long day and without any adrenaline left, things were getting fuzzy at the edges. “So, you’ll understand where I’m coming from when I say this: your presence here is like a bucket of flies in the middle of an excrement sandwich. Sure, the sandwich on its own was terrible, but the flies improved nothing with their presence.” The ghost powered teen added with a glare. “Unfortunately, _I_ don’t get a vote on whether you stay, and my father can be unhelpfully stubborn about helping other people. Chances are, you’re stuck here for an indeterminable duration, but at least after that last battle you have some idea of how dangerous the GSU are.” He snorted and tossed the light back to his sister, “or well one could only _hope_ , I have my doubts about your cognitive abilities. I mean you _did_ just walk up to ghost hunter HQ in Amity Park. But I’m sure something will eventually penetrate the thick veil of ignorance you’re carting around inside your skull.”

“I’m sure he gets it.” She stopped to switch the light into the hand that didn’t feel like it was going to fall off. “I’m almost as sure about that as I am about the fact you’re going to mention how much you hate him being here every time you get a chance.”

“Oh no, not every time, that would be redundant.” He passed a sardonic smile in his sister’s direction. “Just every time I can mention it in a new context.” The dark haired teen stood straighter and stretched, the crackling pops of his spine echoing in the absurdly quiet space in the small antechamber. “Do you think they’ve stopped arguing by now?”

Jasmine pursed her lips in thought before replying, “Maybe? If not, we can just sneak into the RV or the Hover. In any case, I don’t want to stand here in the damp and cold anymore.” With that, she pushed away from the hard rocky wall and started off down the path back to the main part of the cave.

Danny carefully slunk behind her. They hadn’t exactly been super forthcoming, but they’d given him a lot more information than he had volunteered on his own. Information that wasn’t strictly necessary to wrapping his head around the situation and reality he found himself in. To be frank, he wanted to ask more about their time in Amity Park. They’d lived there for a good while, made _friends_ they’d claimed. It was entirely selfish, but maybe they knew something about Sam and Tucker? _As_ _if they remembered the names of people they’d left behind years ago in a panic. Oh yeah, they would definitely care about some random kids they probably never met in a town filled with people trying to kill them. Get real Fenton._ He scuffed his feet as he listened to the subdued plinks and plunks of water dripping from the ceiling.

Even if Vlad and his mom had come to an agreement about him or just set aside their argument to figure out what to do next, he had no interest in walking back into the larger chamber. The churning feeling of guilt and hot burn of shame was eating at his mind. _I really should have said something…or at least not used my powers like I had been asked._ The damage had already been done, but that didn’t make him feel any better. In fact, it made him feel worse. Sure, they had already been planning to move, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out that they’d left some nice equipment and maybe even important sentimental things back in the disaster zone that was the valley below. Danny was well aware kicking himself in the teeth about this wasn’t helping anyone, but stuck shuffling between the two exhausted Masters’ siblings; he was having a hard doing anything else. If he had never blundered into their lives, they’d probably be perfectly fine right now. _If I had never blundered into their lives, they wouldn’t exist either._ The thought brought up another flare of frustration.

Clockwork clearly stated his intentions not to interfere unless he completely destroyed Reality or Time something, but in his opinion, this spiraling dystopia with the entire Ghost Zone dead definitely counted as serious fuck up worth intervention. Just as the three of them rounded the last corner to make it back to the main part of the cave, Danny felt a wave of nausea with cold tingles down his back. _What if Clockwork was one of the many ghosts killed during that War thing they were talking about before?_ He hadn’t considered the idea before now. Clockwork was the most powerful ghost he knew, or at least of the ghosts he interacted with even occasionally. But it was possible the reason he hadn’t come and done anything about this increasing clusterfuck of a universe was because he _couldn’t_. _He could be already…_ The thought was too sickening to contemplate. He had no idea how to work the Medallion currently phased near his core. Even if they got him back into the Ghost Zone and he went into the Realm Beyond Time, if Clockwork wasn’t there, he had no way to get back into his own timeline, or to go back and attempt to fix what he’d broken so badly. Danny skidded to a stop right at the entrance to the antechamber with the RV before the other ghost powered teen shoved him from behind.

“Come on, there’s no use putting this off. It’s not like delaying the inevitable is going to save you from being tossed out on your butt.”

“Our parents aren’t going to toss him-”

“Shush, let me _dream_.” Daniel closed his eyes while a serene smile took over his expression.

“You are a terrible person. You know if you throw me out of here, the GSU will literally kill me.”

“And you have to know that I don’t give one solitary fudge covered strawberry about that fact.”

“Oh yeah, keep working for the psychopath of the year award Daniel, I’m sure the GSU needs competition.” Jasmine frowned over her shoulder at her younger brother. “You don’t have to like him, God knows I don’t, but could you stop wishing for his demise…at least _out loud_?” She watched as his amused smirk dropped back into a flat expression.

“Don’t have enough room left to care about people who nearly get my family killed. Sorry, oh saintly sister of mine.”

“Empathy is important.”

“You’d think after Austin, you’d learn to be more selective with your charitable views of other people.” He scowled and pressed a hand into the other boy’s back. “Come on, move it already.” He’d have simply gone around, if he wasn’t determined to keep him in his sight at all times. Finally, the other teen scuffled the rest of the way into the main chamber. A quick glance about the space revealed neither of his parents. There was also a lack of yelling or accusations. _At least it’s quiet._

Jasmine sighed as she set the still glowing disk down on one of the tables. “I’m heading back to the RV to sit down on something that isn’t stone. You two can stay here and continue to stare each other down, or you can join me. Personally, my feet feel like lead weights, but if you two want to tough it out for some reason, be my guest.” With that, she started towards the vehicle at a slow pace. Moving at anything above ‘granny shuffle’ was impossible, everything felt like it’d been through a meat grinder, or pounded and tenderized. She glanced over her shoulder to make sure the two boys were following here, before walking the rest of the way to the RV door. She could hear muted conversation from inside. Nothing that sounded like yelling, but it was still impassioned discussion. _I guess they moved the conversation to somewhere with soft cushions._ A great idea in her opinion. She opened the door and stomped up the steps, fatigue instead of emotion leaving her footfalls heavy.

“I completely understand your position here hun…but can you at least see…why undermining his trust on this issue…so soon after he arrived…would have only made things worse?” Vlad had to stop every couple of words to take another shallow breath.

“I can, I just still think it’s stupid.” Maddie griped from her seat across from Vlad in the middle section of the RV. They’d moved into the space at her insistence, worried that he’d make his injuries worse by stubbornly standing and stomping around in frustration while talking to her. She turned slightly to watch the three teens clomp up the stairs back into the vehicle. They could table this discussion for later, there were more pressing issues. “Glad to see you’re all still alive, I was worried you’d drug Danny away to try and leave him outside the cave.”

“I’ve suggested it twice, but everyone seems to think it’s a bad idea.”

“Because it’s immoral, jerkface.” Jasmine rolled her eyes at her brother this time. He was mostly saying it to complain at this point.

Daniel smiled as he settled onto one of the soft cushioned seats, “a difference in perspective then.”

“Should I sleep with one eye open or something? Should I sleep at all? You seriously need to re-examine your decision making processes man. If you were in my position-”

“-I wouldn’t be anywhere near as stupid or useless or a danger to others.” The other dark haired teen said with a shrug. “Truly, the ‘attempted murder by stupidity’ level of social interaction is not a high bar to exceed here.”

“Enough,” Vlad started when he saw Danny open his mouth to reply. He took a shallow breath from where he was half-reclined on one of the long form seats. Breathing hurt. Sitting up hurt. Consciousness was a battle that he was currently losing, and he didn’t want to listen to more pointless bickering. “Save the snarky remarks for a day when we aren’t…about to pass out from…blood loss and exhaustion.” He said been pained gasps. “I’m sure there will be plenty of time for you all to glare at each other later.” He winced at the stretching burn he felt from having taken a breath deep enough to say that all at once.

“Your father is right. What we need to do now is decide where we are going next. We _may_ be able to salvage some equipment that wasn’t stolen or destroyed from the valley below over the next two days, but after that, we have to leave the caves, and we need a destination.” She stopped and sighed, placing another pillow behind her aching back. “Usually, Vlad and I would just pick a place, but I think Jasmine and Daniel are old enough to have some good tactical input on where we should go next.” She frowned when she heard her younger children moving around farther back in the RV. _No point in keeping them out of the conversation._ “And you all can stop pretending to be asleep or ignoring us now.” She called towards the final third of the RV.

The twins and Lizzie quickly bounded out of the back section of the RV, excited to be included in a conversation on where they should set up Camp next for once.

“So mom, can we go to The Falls next?” Nate asked while bouncing into a seat.

“Nu-uh Nate, we were just there like two month ago that’s too soon.” He snickered when his brother stuck out his tongue at him.

“I think it’s a good place to hide, and it’s close to here, but hard to find.”

“Well _I_ think that that’s stupid because it’s too close to where we are now and also because we’d have to fly half of the stuff out to it and that’d be a bad idea cause they are surveying the area with like satellites or whatever.” His twin opened his mouth to respond, when his baby sister spoke up.

“Can’t we just stay in the caves? They can’t get to us because of the cave-in and um, two days isn’t a long time to get all our stuff. I don’t want to move again so fast.”

“This is all great, but you all don’t get a vote. You get to listen and not talk, which is exactly what the child of Magnus the Red gets to do.”

“That’s not even a fair analogy Daniel, you can do better.” Vlad suppressed the urge to chuckle. “Oh don’t explain it.” He stopped to sit up a little straighter, “I mean, that only makes sense if Danny were you…and then you were actually a traitor…and I was actually an immortal god human thing or something…Should have called him a daemon of  Tzeentch.”

“The Head Commander is Magnus.”

“That doesn’t-oh, ok but this is…off track. We’re supposed to be talking about…new Camp locations.” He’d finally worked himself back into an upright sitting position. His middle still hurt like someone had poured coals covered in lighter fluid on it, but he could tell it was healing. Slowly. Far too slowly for his tastes, but to be expected after how much ghost energy he’d expended.

“My suggestion is for Forge Rocks. I know it’s the farthest location in our rotation, but it’s the most fortified, and it has the most provisions. It also has the distinction of being far away from civilization, which will give this enough time to blow over without us being spotted. Otherwise, my second suggestion is Dawn’s Bridge.”

“Are any of these places actually named that, or is it all code names for the spy bugs living in the walls of the cave rocks?” Danny frowned when no one seemed inclined to actually talk about real places or areas of the United States. He had to bite back a growl when his alternate reality twin rolled his eyes at him.

“No, those aren’t the ‘real names’, they are just designations that make it easier to remember. Which one would you remember ‘Brownsville’ or ‘Flight’s Fall?” He felt a bubble of warm satisfaction when the other teen agreed with a shrug. “Back on topic, those are my top two choices, Jasmine, any other suggestions?”

“Well, I agree with Forge Rocks, but not Dawn’s Bridge. I know Dawn is closer, but there was just a ghost incident with one of the GSU handlers losing control there a week back. That has nothing to do with us, but everyone in the area will be on edge, and paranoid people like to call the cops for little or no reason at all. We don’t need that kind of exposure.”

“It is harder to escape from Dawn than Forge, especially since they started check points recently.” Daniel shrugged when his parents looked in his direction. “Ok, not recently, heard about it the last time I was in town, so maybe four months ago. Long enough that they’ve become routine and they’ll be harder to bypass in a rush.”

“Forge Rocks is a good location, but we planned on mentioning that it’s going to be on the inactive cache list, and off rotation. Let me explain,” Maddie held up her hand, “they just added a new ghost hunter HQ during the last expansion of the network there. It used to make up one of the areas that was part of the ‘Great Holes’ in their network in the mountain west, but that changed about six months back. We’ll be able to strip it during a supply run, but that’s about it.” She rubbed her temple at the headache forming behind her eyes. “And, Flight’s Fall was going to be the next stop, that was the plan, but obviously that’s not going to work.”

“Obviously?” Danny chanced asking.

“Yeah genius, we’d need a bunch of supplies left in the valley. Fake IDs, different hair, clothing, you name it. Doesn’t one of our personas have a fake rebellious tattoo or something for the area?” Daniel shrugged before staring out the RV window facing towards the path out of the cave. “We can’t just show up there without it, and we can’t make new personas without more supplies either. So, we’re stuck looking at somewhere without a whole lot of civilization, that doesn’t ask questions, and won’t think it’s weird when a whole family in an RV shows up on a family vacation using only cash in the middle of the school year. So, Heber City, Utah, or _Forge Rocks_ …before the ghost hunters decided to set up shop.”

“Ok, well, what about some place from the older rotations? We haven’t been there for a while, so maybe one of the remote locations farther north? Ice Canyon, or Snow Peaks? Or mayb-”

“-The Meadow.” Vlad locked eyes with his wife sitting across the RV. “It’s well ahead of schedule…but we need the break. We’d have time to actually replenish our equipment supplies and make safe raids of caches without having to worry about the lack of shields. Naturally, shields are the first priority, if we can’t salvage something from the valley but, until then, it’s our best option. And unlike any of the northern options from the last rotation, we don’t have try and run the border without ID.”

“We’d have to cross the mountains west, and the last time we were there, we were worried that the fluctuations weren’t strong enough-”

“I know Maddie, but it’s nearing summer, and the last readings we got from the probes showed everything was setting up for a solid summer pattern. Do you disagree?” He leaned forward some to stretch his back, his insides felt let a balancing act between the bruises on his spine and the healing cuts in his middle.

“No. It’s just a little more chance than I like.”

“Fortune favors the bold.”

“And the people who are actually clear about their plans.” Danny grumbled, more than tired of being out of the loop.

“The Meadow is a naturally occurring nullification zone in the western edge of the Rockies near the state line of Washington and Oregon. It was the first place we set up a temporary base, and over the years, it’s become our most fortified campsite.”

_If it does what the shields do, why not create a permanent base there and just dig in?_ Vlad explained to him why they hadn’t without being asked. The nullification strength changed seasonally and even in some place well fortified, it’s not like they could fight off a coordinated siege from a well funded government agency he’d said. It was still some place they’d never been spotted though, and with summer approaching the strength of the nullification field, he had no idea how it worked, would be at its strongest, more powerful than even their man-made shields. Unfortunately, that pattern diminished and reversed towards the winter time, so even if they wanted to just dig in, it would be obvious where they were when the winter high of ambient spectral energy didn’t show up.

Danny settled deeper into his seat as everyone around him agreed that was the best spot for a new Camp site, and swallowed his ambivalence and helplessness. He had more questions than ever, but whether Clockwork was alive and he could ever get out of this spiraling hell hole of a universe would have to wait until he could even get into the Zone. _Never mind how…_ He heard Jazz mention distractedly that it would take until the end of summer to replace the equipment. _And at least that long before they’d be in a position to get me into the Ghost Zone if not longer._ Danny thought morose. It was going to be a long summer.

 

**…then you better ask the right questions.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that, the terrible day from Hades finally ends! Yes, from the moment Danny woke up in up in the basement near Amity Park(If the Nightmare...) until NOW after the Battle in Colorado has all been one terrible horrible no-fun-times day. As you imagine, everyone is super exhausted! So much so that I'm going to be giving Danny and the Masters' family a little break and pick on a certain Commander and some surprise guests. Cya next time!


End file.
